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
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 YouTube video blogs before grilling his country’s elite with meticulous accusations of corruption. The 42-year old activist exploits open-source methodology to expose secret wealth, cronyism, bribery, and other indiscretions by Russian …
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 it as just another scoop when they can reveal a celebrity’s hidden sexual preference or gender identity. Others have ideological motives. They may want to advance the gay cause, or expose …
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 …
By Sergei A. Samoilenko Character assassination comes in many shapes and forms. Character attacks vary in their complexity across time and cultures at interpersonal, intergroup, and international levels. The traditional view of CA, grounded in social psychology, sees a CA event in terms of cause-and-effect relations between the attacker and the target. Their relationship is …
Continue reading The Tetris Model of Character Assassination
According to various reports, Hillary Clinton did not cry the night she lost the presidency to Donald Trump in 2016. Yet, one of her communication consultants noted in the wake of the defeat that Clinton should have “nodded less and cried more” to authentically communicate her strong emotions. Eight years earlier, at a campaign stop …
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 himself against accusations of sexual assault, brought by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who argues that he assaulted her while they were students in high school. A charge of sexual assault is …
In times of deep political polarization, the continued capitalization of kompromat and the circulation of ridicule in the media continue to drive divergent attitudes to new ideological extremes. Sadly, it undermines any prospects for civic dialogue and public consensus.
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 conservatives, and even Trump and Putin all benefit from the commodification of public interest in the Trump White House.
By Jennifer Keohane While the heat and humidity have made those in DC lethargic and prone to staying inside and binging on Netflix, on Twitter, it’s always a perfect 75 degrees with conditions ripe for character assassination. My case today comes from the recent wave of primary elections ahead of November’s midterms. In New York’s …
Continue reading On Authenticity and Character Assassination
