The word muckraking sounds like a word Dr. Seuss would use in one of his books. But what is muckraking? Muckraking is the action of searching out and publicizing scandalous information about famous people or a famous company in an underhanded way. Many newspapers, documentaries, and magazines muckrake all the time to make someone look mad and throw someone under the bus. I found one example of muckraking that involves the biggest humanitarian organization of all time, the Red Cross. In this article of writing, ProPublica, a non-profit newsroom that investigates journalism, went undercover to find facts about the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts Red Cross tried to give in 2012. Red Cross called their efforts "flawless" but ProPublica thought differently.
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| Document that talks about sheltered children near sex offenders |
ProPublica found ten things that they found disturbing. One of the things they found in a document from Red Cross was that they sheltered children near sex offenders. This document states that sex offenders had a special place, but none of them were there. They were all in the children's area. It also says unrelated adults showered with children. Wow!
They also say the Red Cross took emergency vehicles away from aid work and used them as props at press events. They had 15 emergency vehicles reassigned for PR purposes after the storm. Also, ProPublica found that Red Cross threw out 35,000 perfectly good Danishes because they didn't know where to deliver them. It left victims hungry. They found in a written document that disable victims were left in their wheelchairs for days.
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| Wheelchair Victims |
ProPublica also found that Red Cross didn't have batteries to give out with flashlights, but they did supply pork to a Jewish retirement home. ProPublica also found that Red Cross sent 80 vehicles that were empty. They only sent the vehicles to be seen and make them look good. They also did this during Hurricane Isaac.
A couple other things ProPublica found was that Red Cross sent hundreds of volunteers to a city that wasn't in Hurricane Isaac's path. 90% of Red Cross volunteers dispatched for Hurricane Isaac were stationed in Tampa ahead of the 2012 GOP convention. The last thing they found was about the Red Cross officials on the site of Sandy. Officials said they were undermined by headquarters. That means they were weakened.
If all of this is true, ProPublica really tried to make Red Cross look like a kindergarten-ran organization. That is the beauty of muckraking. If you can make a big celebrity or a huge organization, like Red Cross, look really terrible, congratulations, you have mastered the art of muckraking. Welcome to a very muckraking society!!!
A couple other things ProPublica found was that Red Cross sent hundreds of volunteers to a city that wasn't in Hurricane Isaac's path. 90% of Red Cross volunteers dispatched for Hurricane Isaac were stationed in Tampa ahead of the 2012 GOP convention. The last thing they found was about the Red Cross officials on the site of Sandy. Officials said they were undermined by headquarters. That means they were weakened.
If all of this is true, ProPublica really tried to make Red Cross look like a kindergarten-ran organization. That is the beauty of muckraking. If you can make a big celebrity or a huge organization, like Red Cross, look really terrible, congratulations, you have mastered the art of muckraking. Welcome to a very muckraking society!!!
Ironically I was reading yesterday how the Red Cross claims 91 cents of every dollar goes to helping people. But through investigation it has been found out that in some years only 73 cents or less actually goes to helping people. This shows that there is a lot of money people donate that goes to salaries and running the Red Cross. Which is fine but don't misrepresent the money people donate.
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