A Reputation-Laundering Firm That Ruined Its Own Reputation | Hacker News Reader

A Reputation-Laundering Firm That Ruined Its Own Reputation

newyorker.com

83 pointsiamben12 comments

This part of the article stuck out:

> “As we have known from the start, we are in the middle of a civil war with the Guptas and allies on one side, and Johann Rupert and others on the other side. More mud will inevitably be thrown. However, it is difficult to turn down such a large retainer.”

I feel like the blowback the Guptas and their PR flunkies got was more because of the fact that this was a power struggle between different obligarch factions than because of wrongdoing (although obviously they are guilty of that as well).

If the Guptas/Pottinger had targeted people without massive wealth and clout among global and European elite circles we might not be getting behind the scenes exposures like these.

I think we live in era where ordinary people and interests that don't represent the wealthy have no ability to hit back against character assasination and PR campaigns, and with no one left to go after the future is going to be obligarchs targetting each other, a bit like the late stage Roman republic.

PR firms/people don’t die. They just reincarnate.

There has been a massive resurgence in racial incitement on South African social media in the last few months. What do out-of-work PR manipulators do when the wish to seek vengeance?

Here are two examples of incitement: https://twitter.com/edmorechauke/status/1010085732915011589 https://twitter.com/pluckynemes/status/989586280529977344

Here's an SA Indian journalist talking about a death threat she received on Twitter after a sudden upsurge in anti-Indian sentiment: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/ferial-haffajee/ferial-you-...

One of South Africa's cellphone networks has allowed free Twitter access, meaning that large numbers of poorly educated people, in a violent country with limited law enforcement capability, are open to violent incitement. Forget theoretical discussions about fake news and free speech, unless Twitter and FB develop a rapid response mechanism for neutering this kind of thing, it's just a matter of time before someone gets attacked or killed in real life.

Kind of reminds me of trolls in NetHack, especially since trolling is their business.

I believe that predates the modern usage of “troll.” Trolls regenerating is an old fantasy trope.

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/103146/where-did-t...

Try killing them harder?

Tell that to Max Clifford.

Again, not sure why this is getting downvoted. He was a publicist with a terrible secret that, when exposed, led to the destruction of his reputation, his business, and ultimately very likely contributed to his death.

A bit like a virus that is so lethal to it's host that it extinguishes itself.

PR is just another word for Propaganda, isn'it ?

In one very vague sense, marketing, communication, pr and propaganda are all cousins.

But in a more serious sense, if you just out and out lie, and repeat the falsehood, I would count that as propaganda. If you simply put a spin on it but don't disavow actual facts, I would put that down in PR.

In Handmaid's Tale, when Fred goes to Canada he engages in a lot of PR. But when he disavows actual practices, he slides into propaganda.

And nothing of value was lost.

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