This morning, CARP Lab hosted a conversation between Sergei Samoilenko and Dr. Stephen Farnsworth. Dr. Farnsworth is a professor at the University of Mary Washington and the director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies. The conversation spanned political party affiliation, the importance of authenticity in campaigning, and the impact of policy and character …
Continue reading Webinar #8: Presidential Character from Clinton and Cable to Trump and Twitter
Today, Eric Shiraev spoke with political campaign consultant Jason Jay Smart about the role of opposition research in campaigning, different government systems, and how the public gets primed to believe character attacks. The conversation spanned multiple countries and elections, so it's a must-watch for anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes of character attacks and politics. Watch …
Continue reading Webinar #7: Character Assassination in Political Campaigns
If you missed our webinar on June 12 with political humor expert Christopher Gilbert of Assumption University, it's available here on YouTube. In this webinar, Jennifer Keohane hosted a conversation with Gilbert about the power of political humor, its role in democratic politics, and of course, Alec Baldwin's portrayal of Donald Trump on Saturday Night …
Continue reading Webinar #5: Political Humor, Caricature, and Saturday Night Live
As the mastermind behind the 1950s Communist witch hunt, US Senator Joseph McCarthy was one of the most notorious political figures of his time. His credibility received a severe blow when TV journalist Joseph Murrow issued a highly critical report about him in his show See It Now, hailed by many commenters as “television’s finest …
By Martijn Icks On June 21st, Edwina Hagen and I organized the colloquium “Character Assassination! Media and Mudslinging from Caligula to King Gorilla” in Amsterdam. We invited experts on various periods in Western history to discuss practices of character assassination from an historical perspective. Comparing various case studies, we hoped to shed light on some …
We often talk about character assassination in politics, but of course character attacks abound in other social realms as well. Sports, entertainment, academia, science, and every domain of human social life features character attacks as people compete for advantages. In the competitive arena of sports, it’s unsurprising that opponents would harbor aggressive feelings against their …
Continue reading They Spoke In Defense of Their Contracts: Apologia in Sports
By Martijn Icks Ethnic minorities are particularly vulnerable to character attacks. Last March, Dutch parliament passed a motion urging the political party DENK to stop publishing intimidating video clips about MPs with Turkish roots. Signatories expressed their concern that MPs were attacked “primarily on the basis of their descent” rather than because of their political …
Or: Why Don’t More Character Assassins get Sued? One of the things that our extensive research into character assassination has uncovered is the staying power of this communication strategy through the ages. As Martijn Icks’s work demonstrates, character attacks can be traced back to our democratic forefathers in ancient Athens. We’ve also seen character assassination …
Continue reading Character Assassination in the Court of Law
by Rod Carveth OK, a couple of items to start with. First, should I ever lose my mind and run for elective office, here’s some “oppo” research that I am just handing to you. My mother, who was not what you would call racially sensitive, taught me the following nursery rhyme when I was about …
Continue reading The Growing Character Assassination of Ralph Northam
By Henri van Nispen Oderint, dum metuant. “Let them hate, so long as they fear.” It certainly is an adage appropriate for a creature like Wolverine. The saying, attributed to the Roman emperor Gaius Caligula (12-41 CE), would also fit someone like President Trump, even though Nobel laureate Paul Krugman thought Caligula the better of …
Character Assassination and Reputation Politics Research Lab 