'Truth Isn't the Point'
Painful Reality: What often matters most to some people in conflicts of competing narratives is believability
Facts, evidence, proof and the truth can be that much more difficult to see, hear and learn when they are behind the fog of accusations, silence, denials, return accusations and people’s expressed biases.
“Amid a turducken of lawsuits, it’s hard to know what’s true,” Kat Rosenfield wrote at The Free Press in her article: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, and the Art of the Smear.
“But truth isn’t the point for the people spinning this,” she added. “The point is who has the more believable story.”
Notice that Rosenfield didn’t say the truth isn’t important in general. She is saying that “for the people spinning” narratives, truth is secondary to winning the court of public opinion (in and out of court).
It’s important to realize and remember that different people will come to various hardened conclusions about which story is credible, more credible or 100 percent true. You say “A,” is believable and someone else says “B,” another person says “both may be telling the truth” and other people say “neither seems honest.”
When people are passionate about a particular conflict, they will believe, without always fully knowing, that they are seeing clearly, as in 20-20 vision.
That’s possible, of course, yet it’s also possible that they aren’t seeing the situation for all that it is in reality.
This article is about what can happen in intense conflicts
I do wonder though, who is being defamed and is it a black-and-white question?
“… in the world of Hollywood reputation management, the kings aren’t kings; they’re queen bees, masters of social aggression who can hone a narrative as fine and glittering as a needle — and then slide it gently right between your ribs. It is worth remembering that Lively has a publicity team, too...,” Rosenfield wrote.
Key words I notice, “masters of social aggression” and “Lively has a publicity team, too…” What we should understand: There are people who spin stories who will absolutely aggress socially, knowing full well that not everything that they are communicating is factual and true and conducting themselves ethically and morally.
There may be no pure “white hats” in this conflict or other ones, no matter the confident, pointed communication being disseminated. Oftentimes there may be one person or party being honest and the other not, absolutely. Always? No.
Keep in mind that what we are being told requires additional study and reporting.
“… this new narrative — the one that paints Lively as a victim of Baldoni’s evil manipulations — is just as much a carefully constructed means of reputation management as the one that nearly sank Lively this summer,” Rosenfield wrote.
“Is it true? Perhaps; perhaps not. But either way, the story is certainly better. More exciting. More sordid. More compulsively repeatable.”
Don’t think that publicists and spin masters don’t fully know what they are doing? They do. It’s not pretty or honorable if the communication is defending bad behavior. Right now, there is a war of competing reputations to keep, or regain, public approval for self interest (careers and continuing business opportunities).
Where does the full truth lie? Is this a story of one smear campaign and one truth teller or even more unsavory, mutual smear campaigns, in full roar?
It’s more easier to be misled than we might assume.
There are certainly circumstances where we distrust those telling the truth and believe those whom are twisting stories or not telling the truth. The truth is the point. That doesn’t change. Yet, as distasteful as it is, believable stories often win the day.
This newsletter — Reputation Intelligence — is written by Michael Toebe, and is a product of Reputation Intelligence - Reputation Quality, a firm which helps individuals and organizations assure a greater peace of mind, provide stress relief through reliable decision analysis, consulting, advisory and communications.
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