Blog

A Broken Crown: the Kaiser’s Rebuke of Hitler

By: Zayd Hamid, CARP Intern After World War I, the German state transformed from an illiberal constitutional monarchy to a semi-liberal republic. That republic…

Welcome new intern, Ninya Khabush!

Ninya Khabush is currently studying at George Mason University. She is majoring in Government and International Politics with an interest in minoring Chinese. Ninya…

Welcome new intern, Lesley Chen!

Lesley Chen is a current undergraduate student at George Mason University pursuing a Major in Government and International Politics and a Minor in Legal…

Attacked over Partying

By Zayd Hamid Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin is the youngest female head of state in the world. With that distinction comes attention to…

Welcome to a new group of interns!

We at CARP lab are excited to welcome new and returning interns to our team this fall, and we’re handing over the blog reins…

CARP Debates: Depp v. Heard

Was Johnny Depp’s recent legal victory over ex-wife Amber Heard a victory the court of public opinion? CARP Facebook group members Nancy Snow and…

Brian Flores: Attention-Seeker or Victim

By Jeffrey Kafka Jr and Camilla Bracamonte Ex Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores has filed a lawsuit against the NFL on the fact of…

Banking on Bill Gates

By Jennifer Keohane Leadership vacuums beg to be filled, and the void in the coronavirus response from the Trump White House was black-hole-sized. As…

CARP Lab welcomes new intern

CARP Lab is pleased to introduce you to our newest intern, Andrew Douglas, who is joining us in Washington, DC this fall. Andrew is…

New YouTube Series

Check out our new “5 Questions in 5 Minutes” series. It features CARP Lab co-founders discussing their research with Arya Rashidi, CARP marketing intern.…

May 1, 2020 Webinar Posted on YouTube

As the mastermind behind the 1950s Communist witch hunt, US Senator Joseph McCarthy was one of the most notorious political figures of his time.…

Clodius the Cross-Dresser

By Martijn Icks In December 62 BCE, Rome was gripped by a bizarre scandal. Publius Clodius Pulcher, a young man from a noble family,…

Salieri vs. Mozart: Wrongfully Attacked?

By Eric Shiraev The composer Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) could not have even thought about becoming one of the most noticeable victims of character assassination…

The Amsterdam Colloquium: Some Thoughts

By Martijn Icks On June 21st, Edwina Hagen and I organized the colloquium “Character Assassination! Media and Mudslinging from Caligula to King Gorilla” in…

On Our Terminology

By Eric Shiraev Image:Wikimedia Commons/John Tenniel “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I…

Traitors to Turkey

By Martijn Icks Ethnic minorities are particularly vulnerable to character attacks. Last March, Dutch parliament passed a motion urging the political party DENK to…

Can Civil Debate Save Us?

As a former competitive debater and current professor of argumentation theories, I get a lot of questions about what civil debate entails. Moreover, as…

Keynote Address & Professional Speakers

Saturday, March 16 1:30-2:30 PM Keynote Address Shawn Turner is the President of MPACT Communication, a risk and strategy communication consultancy, and a Professor…

How Navalny Torpedoes Russian Officials

Photo: “Bribe” over Oleg Deripaska embracing Sergei Prikhodko, Titanic-style By Alexander Naumov “Hi, it’s Navalny.” This is how Russia’s most popular oppositionist starts his…

“I Just Don’t Like Her”

Or: We Can dance if we want to. I’ve written before about the double-bind facing female political candidates, which is well-established in the rhetorical…

CA trends to follow in 2019

By Sergei A. Samoilenko In this blog post, I continue the tradition of observing cultural tendencies relevant to the study of CA and reputation management.…

Outing Eulenburg: A German Scandal

By Martijn Icks “Outing” politicians and other public figures as gay against their wishes is a long-established practice in modern journalism. Some reporters regard…

As Crazy As Caligula? [Part 2]

By Henri van Nispen Caligula is clearly a case of imperial madness and hardly suitable for serious reflection upon today’s problems. I care to…

As Crazy As Caligula? [Part 1]

By Henri van Nispen Oderint, dum metuant. “Let them hate, so long as they fear.” It certainly is an adage appropriate for a creature…

The Tetris Model of Character Assassination

By Sergei A. Samoilenko Character assassination comes in many shapes and forms. Character attacks vary in their complexity across time and cultures at interpersonal,…

On Emotion, Character, and Gender

According to various reports, Hillary Clinton did not cry the night she lost the presidency to Donald Trump in 2016. Yet, one of her…

Dealing with the Iron Duke

By Martijn Icks Our Devil, who doth in Brussels dwell Cursed be thy name in heaven and in hell   These words are not…

Assassinating Survivors of Sexual Assault

By: Jennifer Keohane A rancorous, partisan battle over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court has rocked Washington, DC this week. Kavanaugh is defending…

Theodora’s Secrets

By Martijn Icks Ravenna is among Italy’s hidden gems. Boasting no less than eight UNESCO World Heritage sites, its rich history as a residence…

Making Profit from Character Assassination

In times of deep political polarization, the continued capitalization of kompromat and the circulation of ridicule in the media continue to drive divergent attitudes…

Remembering John McCain

The passing of long-serving senator and two-time presidential candidate John McCain on August 25, 2018, spurred discussion in Washington this week. It also illustrates…

Trumpism as Brand Commodification

The so-called Trump Bump is a gift that keeps on giving. Traditional news outlets and their social media competitors for advertising dollars, liberals and…

Selfish Teachers

By: Jennifer Keohane Can you undertake a character assassination campaign against a profession? We at CARP Lab have had rousing debates about whether groups…

Sharia for the Netherlands

By Martijn Icks Last month, Eric Shiraev and I participated in the 2nd International Conference in Scandalogy at the University of Bamberg, Germany. It…

CARP Digest [March 2018]

Hello, It’s been another busy month for CARP and it’s contributors. Recently, Jennifer Keohane, Sergei Samoilenko and Eric Shiraev spoke about CARP, it’s research…

New Book Announcement

By Jennifer Keohane I want to use this post to share a bit of exciting news. I have a new monograph, released with Lexington…

CARP Digest [February 2018]

We have been busy this past month. Just yesterday, Sergei Samoilenko and I attended a series of panels in Washington, D.C. focusing on reputation…

Dracula: A Tale of Horror

By Martijn Icks Few names in history hold as much terror as that of Vlad Dracula, “Little Dragon”, also known as Vlad the Impaler.…

CARP Digest [January 2018]

In Head in the Clouds: The Ridicule of Socrates in Classical Athens, Martijn Icks started a new year by looking to the past and…

How is Character Communicated?

By Jennifer Keohane In this post, I introduce a rhetorical approach to character. This understanding may not square with other academic disciplines that may…

Assassinating Academics

By Jennifer Keohane Approximately three weeks ago, I published an opinion editorial in the Baltimore Sun that was critical of the commencement speaker at…

CARP Digest [November 2017]

by Katya Beisel November may not have been as busy for us as October was, but it was just as exciting. Aside from our…

Gun Control Debate Fails to Rage On

Because the National Communication Association conference is coming up later this week, pulling many of us away from classes and research, I’m not going…

The Ungodly Ideas of Spinoza

By Martijn Icks and Rudmer Bijlsma At first glance, the Jewish-Dutch philosopher Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677) seems an unlikely target for character assassination. The…

The Character Assassination Check List

by Eric Shiraev, Ph.D. These days we receive lots of emails, postings, and other comments related to our work. Many messages come from people…

CARP Digest [October 2017]

by Katya Beisel October was eventful for us. It was CARP’s first full month of publishing content on this new platform. Additionally, we devoted…

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