character assassination

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character assassination (countable and uncountable, plural character assassinations)

1. (idiomatic) A malicious discourse designed to damage the reputation of someone.
   • 2011 December 14, Angelique Chrisafis, “Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism”, in Guardian‎^[1]:

     For months, Dati warned she would refuse to stand aside. Now she has stunned the political class with an open letter to Fillon in Le Monde, a scathing character assassination accusing him of the "lone ambition" of a disillusioned political elite, of doing politics in a way that "never favoured women" and stopping ethnic-minority candidates from progressing at elections. She said he was committing "a sad mistake" in trying to run in Paris.

• demonization, demonizing
• hit job
• smear campaign
• swiftboating
• vilification