whispering campaign

Definition of whispering campaign

: the systematic dissemination by word of mouth of derogatory rumors or charges especially against a candidate for public office

Examples of whispering campaign in a Sentence

He was the target of a whispering campaign started by his political rivals.

Recent Examples on the Web Smear sheets and whisper campaigns targeted Brewer, a moderate on racial issues. — Mike Cason | Mcason@al.com, al, "Alabama Bicentennial: 200 years of political scandals and scrapes," 4 Dec. 2019 Finally, Tom called Karishma’s last-minute whisper campaign at Tribal Council a big act. — Dalton Ross, EW.com, "Survivor host Jeff Probst on the show's most diverse cast in years," 10 Oct. 2019 In the company’s version of events, an unspecified person on the communications team hired Definers Public Affairs to monitor press about the company, help with product announcements, and carry out the odd whisper campaign against prominent enemies. — Casey Newton, The Verge, "How Facebook’s crisis PR firm triggered a PR crisis," 17 Nov. 2018 These are the political tactics that people use, and in the past there's evidence these whisper campaigns have been successful. — NBC News, "The dirty tricks of Oscar campaigns, and what to expect at the 2018 Academy Awards," 4 Mar. 2018 At the same time, a whisper campaign against him started to get louder. — Philip Elliott, Time, "Republicans Brace for a Brutal House Leadership Race," 1 June 2018 Those can range from civil and criminal action to public condemnation and social-media whisper campaigns. — Errin Haines Whack, chicagotribune.com, "Hero, harasser or both? Shaun White's newly complex legacy," 19 Feb. 2018 His aggressive, spare-no-expense style of campaigning for his films sometimes stirred animosity and created a kind of arms race with other distributors, and he was accused on a number of occasions of starting whisper campaigns against rival films. — Josh Rottenberg, latimes.com, "Harvey Weinstein expelled from motion picture academy," 14 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'whispering campaign.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Whispering campaign.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whispering%20campaign. Accessed 16 Feb. 2020.

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