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A smear campaign, smear tactic or simply smear is a political tactic that is an unfair or untrue political attack. It employs the logical technique of conflation in which separate concepts, identities, or reputations of individual or groups are combined into one word or concept, losing individual meanings and differences as in swiftboating. Sometimes the use of the term "smear campaign" is used more generally to include any organized reputation-damaging activity by a group. Common targets are public officials, politicians, and political candidates. Smear campaigns are often based on information gleaned from opposition research conducted by paid political consultants. To a lesser degree, the term can refer to an attempt to damage a person's reputation for nonpolitical ends; for example, during a trial as part of trial strategy, counsel may attempt to cast doubt on the reliability of an opposition witness to pervert the course of justice. Smear campaigning is related to propaganda, media bias, yellow journalism, and other falsehood-related terms such as the use of libel and pejorative terms. In extreme cases, smear campaigns may lead to widespread persecution of a group, such as in the case of the ''Dolchstoßlegende'' before WWII. ==Definition== A smear campaign is an intentional, premeditated effort to undermine an individual's or group's reputation, credibility, and character. Like negative campaigning, most often smear campaigns target government officials, politicians, political candidates, and other public figures. However, private persons or groups may also become targets of smear campaigns perpetrated in companies, institutions, the legal system, and other formal groups. Smear tactics differ from normal discourse or debate in that they do not bear upon the issues or arguments in question. A smear is a simple attempt to malign a group or an individual with the aim of undermining their credibility. Smears often consist of ad hominem attacks in the form of unverifiable rumors and distortions, half-truths, or even outright lies; smear campaigns are often propagated by gossip magazines. Even when the facts behind a smear campaign are demonstrated to lack proper foundation, the tactic is often effective because the target's reputation is tarnished before the truth is known. Smears are also effective in diverting attention away from the matter in question and onto the a specific individual or group. The target of the smear typically must focus on correcting the false information rather than on the original issue. Smear tactics are considered by many to be a low, disingenuous form of discourse; they are nevertheless very common. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「smear campaign」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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