Top Ten Ways to Handle a 'Smear Campaign' _ Stephen M. Walt

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Saturday, February 23, 2013

On grabbing the third railPosted By Stephen M. Walt Monday, February 22, 2010 - 1:41 PM Share

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Ten Ways to Handle a 'Smear Campaign' | Stephen M. Walt http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/02/22/on_grabbing_the_third_rail

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Last week a colleague who has been facing repeated and unfair attacks in the media and the blogosphere

(for making arguments that cut against the conventional wisdom) sent around an email asking a number of

friends and associates (including me) for advice on how to deal with the attacks. Having been smeared in

similar fashion myself, I circulated a list of the lessons I learned from my own experience with "grabbing the

third rail." A few of the recipients thought the list was helpful, so I decided to revise it and post it here. If

any readers are contemplating tackling a controversial subject -- and I hope some of you will -- you'll need

to be ready should opponents decide not to address your arguments in a rational fashion, but to attack

your character, misrepresent your position, and impugn your motives instead. If they take the low road,

here are ten guidelines for dealing with it. (The advice itself is politically neutral: it applies regardless of the

issue in question and no matter which side you're on.)

1. Think Through Your "Media Strategy" before You Go Public. If you are an academic taking on a "third

rail" issue for the first time, you are likely to face a level of public and media scrutiny that you have never

experienced before. It is therefore a good idea to think through your basic approach to the media before

the firestorm hits. Are you willing to go on TV or radio to defend your views? Are there media outlets that

you hope to cultivate, as well as some you should avoid?

Are you open to public debate on the issue, and if so, with whom? Do you plan a "full-court" media blitz to

advance your position (an article, a book, a lecture tour, a set of op-eds, etc.), or do you intend to confine

yourself to purely academic outlets and let the pundits take it from there? There is no right answer to these

questions, of course, and how you answer them depends in good part on your own proclivities and those of

your opponents. But planning ahead will leave you better prepared when the phone starts ringing off the

hook and there's a reporter -- or even someone like Bill O'Reilly or Jon Stewart -- on the other end. Don't

be afraid to listen to professional advice here (such as the media office at your university or research

or anization es eciall if it's our first time in the shark tank. It's also a ood idea to let our su eriors

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ANON_ANON

4:19 PM ET

February 22, 2010

Nice piece, if as usual,

perhaps a bit long for the blogosphere?

A few thoughts:

Point #3: In essence, Always remember, others may hate you- but

those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then youdestroy yourself?

Point #6: Define terms. How often is usually? This kind of behaviorcontrasts sharply with what one is accustomed to in academia,where well-crafted arguments are usually treated with respect, evenby those who disagree with them.

Point #7: How much have you suffered, actually, from publication ofthe Israel Lobby? The Navy, for one, has not apparently blackballedyou. Aside from (to you) ill-founded criticism, which you seemcapable of taking, have there been any negative repercussions fromtouching the (a) third rail?

ZATHRAS

4:48 PM ET

February 22, 2010

Watch Those Allies

This seems like generally good advice to me, though more useful totenured academics than to people facing deadlines -- like elections --by which they must persuade particular audiences that they are right.

The major doubt I have about Dr. Walt's advice concerns pointnumber 7. Allies are surely necessary to someone attempting to

advance an especially unpopular point of view. They can also be asmuch a burden as a help. It doesn't do much good to complain about"guilt by association" if one appears oblivious to those cheering oneon for all the wrong reasons.

This happens in politics all the time. It was a real stretch, forexample, for anyone to think of Barry Goldwater as a racist or ofGeorge McGovern as an advocate of Communist victory in Vietnamand other Third World conflicts. Yet Goldwater's eloquently-expressed resistance to the expansion of federal power over thestates was undoubtedly congenial to the country's most dedicatedracists during the mid-'60s, and McGovern's heartfelt denunciations

of American foreign policy were cited frequently by the Communiststhat foreign policy opposed a few years later.

Was this fair? Does that matter? Discussions about policy areultimately about consequences, not abstract truth. The case Walt andMearscheimer made with respect to Israel and American politics hasplainly suffered not only because "the lobby" and its sympathizershave attacked them, but also because some of their loudestdefenders are plain anti-Semites (and, mostly overseas,sympathizers of Arab terrorism against Israel).

It would certainly be fair for Walt to claim that many of his critics usethat fact to discredit his argument without addressing it on its own

terms, which he has often done. Goldwater and McGovern couldhave made the same complaint, with as much justice and to as littleeffect. Not all allies are good allies, and if you want to promote anargument you know will be controversial you'd better be clear -- inpublic and if need be repeatedly -- that you understand that.


5 2013/02/23 02:59 PM

Top Ten Ways to Handle a 'Smear Campaign' _ Stephen M. Walt

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