whisper campaign

plural whisper campaigns · alternative whispering campaign

1. idiomaticA method of persuasion in which damaging rumors or innuendo are deliberately spread concerning a person or other target, while the source of the rumors tries to avoid detection.

   Both publicly and in a particularly unscrupulous whisper campaign the Liberals tried to change the aspect from one of folly to one of personal corruption and some of this got through to the voters.

   1976 February 12, Donald Horne, “The campaign of the media”, in The Age, Australia, retrieved 17 Aug 2009, page 8

   2 more examples

   Senator Harding will not authorize his headquarters to take public notice of the “whispering campaign.” There has been a difference of opinion among his advisers as to whether to ignore the slanders or to produce evidence disproving them.

   1920 November 1, “Harding Ignores ‘’Whisper’ Campaign”, in New York Times, retrieved 17 Aug 2009, page 1

   McCain—who was famously burned in South Carolina in 2000 after his New Hampshire victory, when a whisper campaign and George Bush's dominance of the state's Republican party structure combined to deliver a crushing blow—was openly nervous.

   2008 January 20, Ana Marie Cox, “S.C. Takes a Chance on McCain”, in Time

   Synonyms: rumor campaign