Abstract
This study uses a functionalist perspective to investigate the political struggle between Theodore Roosevelt and William Randolph Hearst, focusing on Roosevelt's 1906 “muckrake” speech. Hearst spent most of the Progressive Era running for president and battling Roosevelt over issues like trust-busting and the anthracite coal strike. Roosevelt recognized Hearst as his most powerful opponent; part of the president's response was the muckrake speech. The manifest function of the speech was to slow Hearst politically, but its latent function was a delegitimization of all muckrakers while the president solidified control over the direction of reform.