muck-raking

muck-raking

1. adjective Characterized by trying to find out unpleasant information about someone, so as to damage their public reputation. Used before a noun. I think your "newspaper" is just gossipy trash written by muck-raking vultures.
2. noun The act of gathering such information. I hate the muck-raking that goes on ad nauseum during an election season.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • a little
  • appropriate for
  • a few
  • merry-andrew
  • bulletproof
  • point-blank
  • preppie
  • preppy
  • man to man
  • man-to-man
References in periodicals archive
They say the "muck-raking" claims have only been made now that dear old Jimmy is dead and can't defend himself.
Confronted by the allegations about Sir Jimmy, his niece Janet Humble has said it is just "muck-raking".
The move comes ahe a documentary about owner Craig Whyte whi to be broadcast tomorro Rangers have branded programme "a prejud muck-raking exercise".
The smell of sleaze will just not go away and with the General Election set for May more muck-raking is inevitable.
If a serious blog works best when it is independent, then the same is even more true for a satirical or muck-raking site.
Max has been reduced to the role of muck-raking hack, trawling through bins for tacky celebrity stories to sell to the tabloids.
And much as we might deplore trial by media - especially that branch of the media that wallows in muck-raking mischief - he must surely, at the very least, put himself on gardening leave until after the FIA votes have been counted and the courts have ruled on his charges against the News Of The World.
If, like us, you take an unhealthy interest in gratuitous gossip, one look at this muck-raking message board will have you torching your back copies of Heat magazine.
By 1905, Morel was on a muck-raking mission to reveal the ongoing bloodbath, which novelist Joseph Conrad vividly captured in his novella "Heart of Darkness." Morel, docu argues, should be remembered as the 20th century's first great human rights activist.
Certain muck-raking newspapers have reported that Dyer refused to play on the right of midfield because he thought it would harm his England chances, because he sees this season as an opportunity to claim the `Paul Scholes role' for himself.
The champion jockey, still seething over the BBC's outrageous muck-raking Panorama programme broadcast in October, should rise above this nonsense.
Former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, 83, gets 24 years for arranging murder by Mafia of a muck-raking journalist in 1979 - Blair probably knows how he felt.
A friend of Burrell said: "Paul is worried this entire trial could be just another muck-raking exercise which will further damage the Princess's memory.
It was a night of shame for Scottish politics after a campaign disfigured by name-calling, muck-raking, mud-slinging and a headlong descent into the politics of the gutter.
If we buy muck-raking national newspapers tabloids and never complain, then we get the kind of press we deserve.