the activity of looking for information about people’s private lives that they do not wish to make public 探听揭发丑闻;揭露黑幕 the sort of journalism that specializes in political muckraking 专门报道政治丑闻的那种新闻
Word Origincoined by President Theodore Roosevelt in a speech (1906) referring to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and the man with the muck rake.