An examination of five muckraking magazines--"Collier's,""Cosmopolitan,""McClure's,""Everybody's," and the "Arena"--reveals that while addressing many other social ills, muckraking journalists failed to take a strong stand against one of the most glaring evils of their day--the lynching of blacks. Both before and during the muckraking period, columns in "Collier's" argued both sides of the issue, sometimes opposing and sometimes favoring the lynching of blacks. "Cosmopolitan" and "Everybody's" paid almost no attention to lynching. Ray Stannard Baker wrote two articles on lynching for "McClure's" and continued to explore racial issues at "The American Magazine." After Baker's departure, "McClure's" lost interest in lynching. The more radical "Arena" opposed lynching during the premuckraking period, but made little of the issue during the period itself. The progressive movement's blind spot to lynching and race issues was caused by its feeling that immigrants and blacks did not fit in with their ideas of participatory democracy. Even Baker shared the racist perspective of his time. The muckraker's faith that "facts" themselves would lead to reform was justified only when the prevailing consensus allowed the "facts" to emerge, not in the case of the lynching of blacks. (JL)