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The growing literature on the sociology of investigative reporting has focused mainly on
how the dynamics of news production shape muckraking’s impact on public opinion and policy
reform (Ettema & Glasser, 1998; Lang & Lang, 1983; Protess et al, 1991; Schudson, 1992;
Waisbord, 2000). Yet journalists and legal scholars are paying increasing attention to legal and
public relations counter-attacks on investigative reporting by its targets (Borjesson, 2002;
Kirtley, 2000). In the past decade, numerous critical attacks on muckraking in America have
made headlines. Tobacco industry pressure caused ABC to rescind a 1994 story on manipulation
of nicotine levels in cigarettes, and CBS to shelve a 1995 story on tobacco company wrongdoing.
Pentagon reaction to a 1998 CNN report alleging use of nerve gas against American defectors
during the Vietnam War, and Chiquita Brands’ attack on a 1998 Cincinnati Enquirer story that
used company voice mails to indict executives for lawbreaking, also wrung apologies from news
organizations.
Surprisingly, there has been no systematic study of media response to controversial
investigative reports such as these. Yet the rest of the news media provide a potentially
important site of reception for muckraking that likely influences its impact on policy and public
opinion. This study begins to fill this gap by examining elite print reaction to two controversial
investigative reports that were both challenged publicly: ABC’s 1992 Primetime Live report on
Food Lion supermarkets and NBC’s 1992 Dateline NBC story on General Motors’ trucks. The
study sheds light on ways that reaction to muckraking by targets of investigative reports and
other news organizations affects the media’s ability to fulfill its role in democracy as a watchdog
on powerful institutions. In particular, we inquire into the extent to which public relations
campaigns and lawsuits can divert media attention from the original allegations made by
muckrakers, potentially inhibiting the media’s ability to contribute to reform.
Convention