Smear tactics are commonly used to undermine effective arguments or critiques.
John C. Frémont – 1856 US presidential election candidate , the first Republican party candidate for president of the United States, for their respective causes. There was a political campaign smear rumor current in 1856 that Fremont was a Catholic. During the 1856 presidential election,
John C. Frémont was the target of a smear campaign alleging that he was a
Catholic, among other accusations. The campaign was designed to undermine support for Fremont from those who were
suspicious of Catholics.
General Motors against Ralph Nader Ralph Nader was the victim of a smear campaign during the 1960s, when he was campaigning for car safety. In order to smear Nader and deflect public attention from his campaign,
General Motors engaged private investigators to search for damaging or embarrassing incidents from his past. In early March 1966, several media outlets, including
The New Republic and
The New York Times, reported that GM had tried to discredit Nader, hiring private detectives to
tap his phones and investigate his past and hiring prostitutes to trap him in compromising situations. Nader sued the company for
invasion of privacy and settled the case for $425,000. Nader's lawsuit against GM was ultimately decided by the
New York Court of Appeals, whose opinion in the case expanded
tort law to cover "overzealous surveillance." Nader used the proceeds from the lawsuit to start the pro-consumer Center for Study of Responsive Law.
Gary Hart – 1988 US presidential candidate Gary Hart was the target of a smear campaign during the 1988 US presidential campaign. The
New York Post once reported on its front page big, black block letters: "GARY: I'M NO WOMANIZER."
Chris Bryant Chris Bryant, a British parliamentarian, accused Russia in 2012 of orchestrating a smear campaign against him because of his criticism of
Vladimir Putin. In 2017 he alleged that other British officials are vulnerable to Russian smear campaigns.
Overstock critics In January 2007, it was revealed that an anonymous website that attacked critics of
Overstock.com, including media figures and private citizens on message boards, was operated by an official of Overstock.com.
UAE smear campaigns In 2023,
The New Yorker reported that
Mohamed bin Zayed was paying millions of euros to a Swiss firm, Alp Services for orchestrating a
smear campaign to defame the Emirati targets, including
Qatar and the
Muslim Brotherhood. Under the ‘dark PR’, Alp posted false and defamatory Wikipedia entries against them. The Emirates also paid the Swiss firm to publish propaganda articles against the targets. Multiple meetings took place between the Alp Services head
Mario Brero and an Emirati official, Matar Humaid al-Neyadi. However, Alp’s bills were sent directly to MbZ. The defamation campaign also targeted an American, Hazim Nada, and his firm, Lord Energy, because his father
Youssef Nada had joined the Muslim Brotherhood as a teenager. == See also ==