When Stars Collide: A Hollywood Disinformation Story



When does a public relations campaign become something more insidious? When and how does PR slide into propaganda and disinformation?

In Hollywood, PR campaigns are the norm. Public relations are used to promote movies, shows, and stars. A recent campaign, however, seemed to be something more than simply promoting a movie or a star. Instead, this campaign was designed to ruin the reputation of a star, Blake Lively.

A Disinformation Smear Campaign

You can read a description on a legal filing complete with some text messages about the nature and goals of the campaign in this New York Times story by Megan Twohey, Mike McIntire, and Julie Tate. Here’s a simple description. Ms. Lively had concerns about sexual harassment from the director and costar of her recent film. During filming, she received additional safeguards and a commitment from the studio that they would not retaliate.

But as the film was being released, the director and costar became worried that Ms. Lively might go public with her concerns. A crisis public relations firm was hired. This firm didn’t simply promote the movie, studio, and male costar and director. The firm ran a campaign to harm the reputation of Ms. Lively.

The Tools of Disinformation

The New York Times referred to this as a smear campaign. However, the tools used are the same as those employed in political disinformation campaigns. In this case, those tools were used to wage a battle to destroy an actor’s reputation. Describing the tools used here can help us become aware of how these tools have been used in political campaigns and in campaigns to deny climate change or that smoking causes cancer.

The tools are used fairly frequently in social and news media. A disinformation campaign is always intentional—someone has a goal. Any campaign works to muddy the waters by providing a variety of conflicting information. A disinformation campaign is generally a mix of true and false information. But that information is connected to a narrative that presents a particular and biased viewpoint.

A campaign also relies on a feedback loop of audience and campaign promoters. This often includes rumors that float up from the public to the key figures, who then connect the rumors to the overall narrative. And finally, people become unwitting agents of the disinformation campaign—helping to spread information without carefully checking the truth.

Intentionality

Disinformation campaigns always have a goal. The goal may be to aid a political campaign or for an economic purpose. This is different from other forms of misinformation, in which a person may share something false but without a political or economic goal.

In the case of Blake Lively, the people running the disinformation smear had a goal. They even wrote about their goals in text messages that have become part of the legal filings. The people running the campaign texted that they could “bury anyone.”

Muddying the Water

In a disinformation campaign, the goal may not always be to have people believe false information. Instead, the goal can be to lead people to doubt true information, to throw up their hands and say, “Who knows what’s true?”

In this case, the crisis PR team worked to promote positive stories about the co-star and director while also pushing negative stories about Ms. Lively. The PR firm also pushed to block any negative stories about the costar who is reported to have engaged in sexual harassment.

A Narrative Composed of True and False Information

A disinformation campaign is not the presentation of a single false piece of information. A campaign is the overall narrative that is used to connect true and false sets of information. A story that helps you make sense of the situation. The story presents a biased and potentially false narrative.

In this case, the crisis PR team wanted to paint Ms. Lively as difficult, as someone who makes false claims, and as someone who can’t be trusted. The goal seems to have been to ruin her reputation as a reliable person in case she decided to make public her concerns about the sexual harassment by her co-star and director. Some of the information promoted was based on taking parts of old interviews out of context. Anyone can be made to look mean or problematic if a few parts of an interview are taken out of context. And those pieces can be woven into a negative narrative.

The Feedback Loop

Disinformation campaigns are less likely to work if presented by a single person. Most campaigns rely on rumor mills, feedback loops, and unwitting agents. People suggest things, and rumors circulate. If a rumor makes it to the leaders of a disinformation campaign, they can connect it to the overall narrative and spread that rumor more widely. Then normal people in the audience become unwitting agents of the disinformation campaign—they help spread the false narrative.

In the case of Ms. Lively, this certainly seemed to be the case. As noted in The New York Times article, the negative stories about Ms. Lively took off. Many people spread these stories. They became the dominant news about Ms. Lively. The narrative was picked up and spread by other news reports.

A Lesson for Everyone

I think there are some simple lessons for all of us. Of course, we should be careful about spreading false information. But even true bits taken out of context can be used to support a false narrative. I don’t know Ms. Lively. I have no idea if she is a wonderful or difficult person. But I can recognize that she was the target of a disinformation smear campaign.

These campaigns happen in Hollywood and Washington. They matter for people’s reputations and a company’s bottom lines.

Our goal should be to avoid being the unwitting agents of disinformation. We can’t check every detail. But we can be more thoughtful about what we choose to share. One of the most powerful tools to stop the spread of disinformation is to slow down—to be more critical when deciding to share information we encounter. None of us want to be the unwitting agent of a disinformation campaign.


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