Socialist muckraker John Kenneth Turner: The twenty-first century relevance of a journalist/activist’s career

Socialist muckraker John Kenneth Turner not only went undercover to expose oppression of Mexican peasants but also ran guns for Mexican rebels. This article compares four aspects of the activist/journalist’s nearly forgotten career to today’s digital activists: as an investigative journalist for the Socialist weekly Appeal to Reason; as author of the influential 1909 “Barbarous Mexico” exposé; as an abettor of Mexican revolutionaries; and as an advocate against US intervention in Mexico through the 1920s. It considers ethical questions involving misrepresentation, verification, and conflicts of interest in Turner’s career before concluding that although passion and a strong point of view historically are no barriers to effective journalism, transparency and verification remain its best barometers.