I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in SAN DIEGO at MYSTERIOUS GALAXY on Mar 24, and in CHICAGO with PETER SAGAL on Apr 2. More tour dates here.
David Enrich's Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful is a brave, furious book about the long-running plan by America's wealthy and corrupt to "open up the libel laws" so they can destroy their critics:
Enrich is a veteran business reporter at the New York Times; he's reported extensively on high finance and sleaze, and has a knack for piercing the Shield of Boredom that protects finance crimes from scrutiny. His 2017 book The Spider's Web manages the nearly impossible trick of making the LIBOR-rigging conspiracy – which involved trillions, but in ways that were so baroque that hardly anyone noticed – comprehensible:
In taking on the libel-industrial complex – a network of shadowy, thin-skinned, wealthy litigation funders; crank academics; buck-chasing lawyer lickspittle sociopaths; and the most corrupt Supreme Court justice on the bench today – Enrich is wading into dangerous territory. After all, he's reporting on people who've made it their life's mission to financially destroy anyone who has the temerity to report on their misdeeds.
As such, Enrich's writing is extremely cautious, sometimes comically so, but always intentionally, in a way that highlights the absurd chilling effect his subjects are attempting to induce in all of us.
The book primarily concerns itself with the effort to overturn Sullivan, a 1964 Supreme Court case that established protections for media outlets that report on public figures and commit minor factual errors, provided that the errors were neither negligent nor malicious.
Since Sullivan, media outlets have held the upper hand when reporting on public figures. While Sullivan isn't a license to simply make stuff up about celebrities, politicians and business leaders, it does mean that if a reporter makes a minor misstatement, it's on the subject of the reporting to prove that the error was negligent and/or malicious.
Before Sullivan, most defamation litigation happened in state courts, and southern courts allowed lawmakers and cops to sue newspapers that reported on racial terror campaigns during the civil rights fight. The judgments involved were so large that many media outlets simply gave up on reporting on the intimidation, violence and murder taking place in the Jim Crow south.
True to form, Clarence Thomas has led the charge to dismantle a law that was key to the struggle for rights for Black people and other disfavored minorities. In Enrich's telling, Thomas's animus for Sullivan started during his confirmation hearings, when Anita Hill described his relentless sexual harassment of the lawyers who worked for him, including Hill. Being the subject of a media firestorm that painted him as a disgusting, cruel sex-pest seems to have inspired Thomas in a decades-long campaign to find a case that would let him tear down Sullivan, so that wealthy people could once again intimidate reporters into silence. Of course, Thomas's hatred for Sullivan only grew when Propublica revealed that he had taken numerous "gifts" from wealthy "friends" who had business before the courts, revelations that will forever make Thomas's name a synonym for corruption.
Enrich's cast of characters includes a clutch of whiny, ultra-rich axe-grinders, who finance (often in secret) lawsuits that are designed to chip away at Sullivan. Some are international looters or corrupt ex-Soviet oligarchs, but others are ideologues, committed to the principle of impunity for the powerful.
He also introduces us to the lawyers who wage these battles. As you might imagine, the kind of lawyer who sits up at night figuring out how to help wealthy, powerful people destroy their critics is often a crank themselves, with "colorful" personal relations that Enrich reports on with meticulous prose, including the many denials and non-denials his subjects sent when he sought comment.
As with his LIBOR book, Enrich does yeoman duty here unpacking complex matters that would be dull in a lesser writer's hands. The litigation strategies devised by Sullivan's enemies are always convoluted and are sometimes clever, much like the litigation strategies used to kill campaign finance limits (Citizens United) and abortion rights (Dobbs). Indeed, many of the financiers, think-tanks and lawyers behind those plots are also would-be Sullivan slayers.
The best of these legal gambits are actually rather clever – locating innocent people who've been genuinely wronged by Sullivan (as the saying goes, "hard cases make bad law") and then using them to undermine Sullivan, without actually helping them in any way. It's positively fiendish.
We're in a moment when a lot of powerful people are getting far more powerful, and abusing that power to commit wildly corrupt acts. The only way we'll know about this is if the press can freely report on their misdeeds. Murder the Truth is a vital guide to the next Citizens United, the next Dobbs – a campaign to take away your right to know about the next assault on your rights that plutocrats will launch.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
Moral character is widely expected to lead to moral judgements and practices. However, such expectations are often breached, especially when moral character is measured by self-report. We propose that because self-reported moral character partly reflects a desire to appear good, people who self-report a strong moral character will show moral harshness towards others and downplay their own transgressions—that is, they will show greater moral hypocrisy. This self-other discrepancy in moral judgements should be pronounced among individuals who are particularly motivated by reputation. Employing diverse methods including large-scale multination panel data (N = 34,323), and vignette and behavioural experiments (N = 700), four studies supported our proposition, showing that various indicators of moral character (Benevolence and Universalism values, justice sensitivity, and moral identity) predicted harsher judgements of others' more than own transgressions. Moreover, these double standards emerged particularly among individuals possessing strong reputation management motives. The findings highlight how reputational concerns moderate the link between moral character and moral judgement.
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See also:
In two pre-registered studies, we investigated the relationship of left-wing authoritarianism with the ego-focused trait of narcissism. Base
Abstract
In two pre-registered studies, we investigated the relationship of left-wing authoritarianism with the ego-focused trait of narcissism. Based on existing research, we expected individuals with higher levels of left-wing authoritarianism to also report higher levels of narcissism. Further, as individuals with leftist political attitudes can be assumed to be striving for social equality, we expected left-wing authoritarianism to also be positively related to prosocial traits, but narcissism to remain a significant predictor of left-wing authoritarianism above and beyond those prosocial dispositions. We investigated our hypotheses in two studies using cross-sectional correlational designs. Two nearly representative US samples (Study 1: N = 391; Study 2: N = 377) completed online measures of left-wing authoritarianism, the Dark Triad personality traits, and two variables with a prosocial focus (i.e., altruism and social justice commitment). In addition, we assessed relevant covariates (i.e., age, gender, socially desirable responding, and virtue signaling). The results of multiple regression analyses showed that a strong ideological view, according to which a violent revolution against existing societal structures is legitimate (i.e., anti-hierarchical aggression), was associated with antagonistic narcissism (Study 1) and psychopathy (Study 2). However, neither dispositional altruism nor social justice commitment was related to left-wing anti-hierarchical aggression. Considering these results, we assume that some leftist political activists do not actually strive for social justice and equality but rather use political activism to endorse or exercise violence against others to satisfy their own ego-focused needs. We discuss these results in relation to the dark-ego-vehicle principle.
According to the dark-ego-vehicle principle (DEVP), individuals with so-called dark personalities (e.g., individuals with high narcissistic
Abstract
According to the dark-ego-vehicle principle (DEVP), individuals with so-called dark personalities (e.g., individuals with high narcissistic traits) are attracted to political and social activism not for the achievement of prosocial goals but to repurpose the activism to satisfy their specific ego-focused needs. In this pre-registered study, we aimed at replicating and extending previous empirical evidence for the DEVP by examining the associations of pathological narcissism with involvement in feminist activism. A diverse US sample (N = 458) completed online measures of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory and several covariates (i.e., altruism, self-identification as a feminist, and age). Paralleling previous research, higher pathological narcissistic grandiosity was found to be statistically significantly related to greater involvement in feminist activism. Unexpectedly, gender did not moderate this relationship. Also, higher pathological narcissism was related to stronger self-identification as a feminist; however, pathological narcissistic grandiosity explained some variance in the involvement in feminist activism over and above feminist self-identification. In exploratory secondary analyses, we found that higher pathological narcissism was associated with specific feminist conversational interaction behaviors (e.g., correcting other’s non-feminist language). The limitations (e.g., the relevance of other dark personality traits beyond narcissism) and the theoretical implications for the DEVP are discussed. Overall, the findings of the present study are further support for the DEVP.
The dark-ego-vehicle principle (DEVP) suggests that individuals with so-called dark personalities (e.g., high narcissistic traits) are attra
Abstract
The dark-ego-vehicle principle (DEVP) suggests that individuals with so-called dark personalities (e.g., high narcissistic traits) are attracted to political and social activism that they can repurpose to satisfy their specific ego-focused needs (e.g., signaling moral superiority and manipulating others) instead of achieving prosocial goals. Currently, research on the DEVP is still rare. With two pre-registered studies, we sought further evidence for the DEVP by examining the associations of pathological narcissistic grandiosity with involvement in LGBQ activism (Study 1) and gender identity activism (Study 2). Socioeconomically diverse samples from the USA (Study 1; N = 446) and the UK (Study 2; N = 837) were recruited online via the research-oriented crowdsourcing platform Prolific. Individuals completed the Pathological Narcissism Inventory as well as measures of involvement in activism. Moreover, we assessed different covariates (e.g., altruism), and potential correlates within the narcissism–activism relationship (i.e., virtue signaling, dominance, and aggression). In addition, we examined potential relationships between other dark personality variables (e.g., psychopathy) and activism. In both samples, higher pathological narcissistic grandiosity was related to greater involvement in activism. As expected, virtue signaling was consistently involved in the relationship between pathological narcissistic grandiosity and activism. However, neither dominance nor aggression was related to individuals’ involvement in activism. The results did also not consistently support a relationship between higher psychopathy and greater involvement in activism. Overall, the findings help to further specify the DEVP.
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Some of the worst people in the world are the ones who build their whole identity around how virtuous they are.
When you think about it, it's an obvious red flag. 🚩🚩🚩
How do you become an it-girl in an online community?
Be authentic – share about your genuine interests, perspectives, skillsets, inspirations, etc.
Understand your "why" and "what" – the purpose and "brand personality"/personal brand of your content
Thoughtfully communicate and curate your image/profile via images/text/video
Post regularly. Respond to community engagement
Follow and engage with creators you love/others in these communities
Be consistent. Allow the authentic progression of your life to reflect in your content while remaining mindful of/adjusting to cater to your audience's needs (Why do they come to your page/follow + interact with you?)
“Everywhere I go, I’m second to arrive. My reputation precedes me, and sometimes it skips out on the bill.”
– Jarod Kintz
Your online reputation is how people perceive you over the internet. With the growing digital world, customers prefer to check online reviews or answers on products and services offered by your brand before they buy it from an e-commerce platform. If your reputation is pessimistic on the web, will these individuals search for answers to go to you? Toward the day’s end, an awful reputation online will negatively affect your business objectives.
In fact, businesses risk losing 22% of business when potential customers find one negative article on the first page of their search results. Three negative articles can cause that number to jump to 59.2%. As scary as that is, negative articles aren’t the only risk factor you ought to be worried about. There is a lot more to it like your competitors defaming you on the internet, negative testimonials, negative publicity by giving false hopes, etc. Wonder, what do you need to gain back the internet reputation you took 20 years to create for your brand?
By now you have understood how important online reputation management is. Things that are important, done properly definitely reap about some benefits in the longer run. So, we now look at some of the benefits of Online reputation management.
Transactional benefit:
Online reputation management services help your brand build positive content anywhere on the internet thereby bringing in more potential customers to reach out to your products and services. Many companies use business reputation management when their reputation is already at “Doom’s Day”. For a few, recovering isn’t advantageous monetarily and the service or product is infused. Consider the possibility that you had important bits of knowledge about what your intended interest group is searching for on the web. Would this change the game a bit?
Greater faith:
Having the trust of your customers is a significant part of accomplishment. Your customers examine their buying decisions with companions and when they have a difficulty they will in all likelihood spread the news about their experience. The web makes everybody a marketer and you should now stress over negative content spreading out quickly on the web. In the event that your company endures lost trust in people in general, quite possibly you will always be unable to turn it constructive once more. In the event that you can recoup from this negative exposure to recover trust from your intended interest group, the cost will be high in correlation with having a procedure set up that could have forestalled it. Hence, this cost can be completely eliminated if there was decent online reputation management in place.
Sow the seed of using tools for online reputation management now and enjoy the fruits of having a strong reputation forever. With outsourcing becoming the new normal, we have some of the best online reputation management agencies providing the best-in-class reputation management services to companies with their team of experts. Online Reputation Manage is one such agency that has the best industrial expertise in sensibly handling the online reputation with everything related to your brand’s value in the online community. This community comprises search engines, online forums, blogs and of course, social media. They serve the purpose of their diverse elite clients from the Fortune 500 list.
Ethical Business: The Foundation of Trust and Integrity
Working Ethically: A Pledge Against Bribery in Business
In the realm of business, ethical conduct is the bedrock of trust and integrity. Explore the crucial importance of working ethically and the detrimental effects of succumbing to bribery, a menace that erodes the very foundation of fair and honest business practices.
The Essence of Ethical Conduct
1. Trust Building
Ethical business practices…
