Character assassination

Character assassination (CA) is a deliberate and sustained effort to damage the reputation or credibility of an individual. The phrase "character assassination" became popular around 1930. This concept, as a subject of scholarly study, was originally introduced by Davis (1950) in a collection of essays revealing the dangers of political smear campaigns. Six decades later Icks and Shiraev (2014) rejuvenated the term and revived academic interest by addressing and comparing a variety of historical character assassination events.