Investigative Journalism is serious business. It can get you killed, arrested or hounded into dispair. It can also destroy the organization that publishes such work. On the other hand, this such reporting can change the world.
It comes in many forms; from novels, to non-fiction books, television segments, newspaper articles-- to now, Youtube videos. I would say that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is an early example, even if Abraham Lincoln never really said to Harriet Beecher Stow, "I've always wanted to meet the women who gave us this great war" It has become true because the book did, in fact, contribute to creating this nation changing conflict.
Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, and Ralph Nader's " Unsafe at any speed " both changed the course of major industries in this country. Nader was followed by G.M. Detectives who attempted to find vulnerabilities to personally attack him on. And then there is the work of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward that brought down a presidency.
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