What does Roosevelt mean when he says a muck-raker is like a person who "fixes his eyes only on that which is vile and debasing"?

He is comparing muck-rakers with people who enjoy creating problems.
He is comparing muck-rakers with people who focus on negative things.
He is establishing a standard from which to judge whether people are good or bad.
He is establishing a standard of what is good muck-raking and what is bad muck-raking.

Question

What does Roosevelt mean when he says a muck-raker is like a person who "fixes his eyes only on that which is vile and debasing"?

He is comparing muck-rakers with people who enjoy creating problems.
 He is comparing muck-rakers with people who focus on negative things.
 He is establishing a standard from which to judge whether people are good or bad.
 He is establishing a standard of what is good muck-raking and what is bad muck-raking.

mxddi3 · Answer

Hiya, welcome to QC (: To begin, we must know what these words in our question mean. Roosevelt says a "muck-raker is like a person who "fixes his eyes only on that which is vile and debasing"? The words vile and debasing are important to take note of. Vile is something that is bad or unpleasant. Debasing can be defined as defacing or degrading; lowering the value of something. So, these words have a negative connotation. This means that we are going to eliminate option C because he isn't really mentioning anything about judging others. We are also going to eliminate option D because Roosevelt is not explaining the difference in good and bad muck-raking. So, now we are left with options A and B. Now we know our words have a negative connotation, so which one, A or B, shows a scenario in which a person is fixing their attention on something bad?