muckrakes

Muckrakes is the verb form of muckrake, meaning to search for and expose corruption, scandals, or misconduct, especially by public officials or corporations.

The term comes from a rake used to gather muck—filth or manure—applied metaphorically to journalists who dig through society's dirt: The reporter muckrakes through campaign finance records looking for irregularities.

The related noun muckraker describes such investigators, originally applied to early 20th-century American journalists who exposed industrial abuses.