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: Jennifer Keohane Character assassination infuses the impeachment inquiry unfolding in Washington, DC, the past few weeks. While there are any number of examples to investigate, I’ll call attention to one figure: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander S. Vindman, a Ukraine expert for the U.S. Army. Lt. Col. Vindman has now testified twice before hearings convened to …
Continue reading Impeachment Hearings, Credibility, and Character Assassination
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 …
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 …
By Martijn Icks In my previous blog, I argued for the importance of historical perspectives on character assassination. However, historical research also comes with its own challenges and limitations. Let’s have a look at some of these. Perhaps the most obvious challenge is the danger of anachronism: we should be very careful not to assume …
Continue reading Character Assassination: The Historical Perspective [Part 2]
As a former competitive debater and current professor of argumentation theories, I get a lot of questions about what civil debate entails. Moreover, as a scholar of character assassination, I continually confront people who say things like “well if we all just practiced civil debate, our country [government/university] would run smoothly.” One of the things …
By Martijn Icks “History is bunk,” American business man Henry Ford famously said. It’s a beloved quote, especially among historians, who like nothing better than arguing against it. Others have opined that those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. And then there’s the sentiment that history doesn’t repeat itself, but …
Continue reading Character Assassination: The Historical Perspective [Part 1]
Character Assassination and Reputation Politics Research Lab 