Morton Mintz, a muckraking journalist who in articles and books exposed the perils of prescription medical products like thalidomide and the Dalkon Shield, and who challenged the auto industry to be more accountable to consumers, died on Monday at his home in Washington. He was 103.

His death was confirmed by his son, Daniel Mintz.

As an investigative reporter for The Washington Post for three decades and an author of 10 books on corporate corruption and government negligence, Mr. Mintz revealed that in the mid-1960s, General Motors had hired detectives to stalk the consumer advocate Ralph Nader, presumably looking to smear him, after Mr. Nader published “Unsafe at Any Speed,” a groundbreaking 1965 book that documented the hazards posed by G.M.’s Chevrolet Corvair, a rear-engine compact car.

“More than any other reporter, Mintz broke open the walls surrounding the media’s non-coverage of serious consumer, environmental and worker harms and rights,” Mr. Nader wrote in 2022, when Mr. Mintz celebrated his 100th birthday.

“What made him stay on the story was not just his professionalism and his regard for the readers, but his passion for justice for the underdogs,” Mr. Nader added. “He epitomized the aphorism ‘information is the currency of democracy.’”

Morton Abner Mintz was born on Jan. 26, 1922, in Ann Arbor, Mich., to William and Sarah (Solomon) Mintz, Jewish immigrants from Lithuania who owned a dry goods store during the Great Depression.

In 1943, Mr. Mintz graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan, where he had been the editorial director of the student newspaper. Joining the wartime Navy, he participated in the D-Day invasion — he was one of the dwindling number of surviving veterans from that operation in 1944 — and was discharged in 1946.