whitewashing (communications)
{{short description|To sanitize and change hiding undesirable qualities}}
{{About|the practice of masking unwanted truths to create a more favourable public image||Whitewashing (disambiguation)}}
{{Original research|date=February 2022}}
Whitewashing is the act of minimizing or covering up vices, crimes or scandals, or of exonerating the guilty by means of a perfunctory investigation or biased presentation of data with the intention to improve someone's reputation."Whitewash", Encyclopædia Britannica, 2003 DVD Ultimate reference suite.
Etymology
Whitewash is a cheap white paint or coating of chalked lime that can be used to quickly give a uniform clean appearance to a wide variety of surfaces, such as the interior of a barn.{{Cite web |last=Aidan |date=2021-06-18 |title=What Is Whitewash And Why Is It Used On Wood? |url=https://urbanlegacy.us/blog/what-is-whitewash-and-why-is-it-used-on-wood/?srsltid=AfmBOorE4rHHQhMFg1AFkYbgDgIpGC1TO5TM3jmOV1frNor6P_Ke6742 |access-date=2024-10-01 |website=Urban Legacy |language=en-US}} The first known use of the term is from 1591 in England, referring literally to the process of coloring a surface.{{Cite web | title=whitewash | work=Merriam-Webster | url=http://merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whitewash | access-date=December 6, 2015}}
Usage
In 1800, in the United States, the word was used in a political context, when a Philadelphia Aurora editorial said that "if you do not whitewash President Adams speedily, the Democrats, like swarms of flies, will bespatter him all over, and make you both as speckled as a dirty wall, and as black as the devil."Philadelphia Aurora (July 21, 1800), cited in the New World Encyclopedia
In the 20th century, many dictatorships, authoritarian and totalitarian states used whitewashing in order to glorify the results of war. For instance, during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia following the Prague Spring of 1968, the Press Group of Soviet Journalists released a collection of "facts, documents, press reports and eye-witness accounts."Skilling, H. Gordon. “Thaw and Freeze-up: Prague 1968.” International Journal, vol. 25, no. 1, 1969, pp. 192–201. JSTOR,
In the study of reputation systems by means of algorithmic game theory, whitewashing refers to the abandonment of a tarnished identity and creation of a blank one,{{Cite Algorithmic Game Theory 2007}}{{rp|682}} which is more widely known in internet slang as sockpuppeting.
According to the Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk director for the International Federation for Human Rights, Ilya Nuzov, Russia is trying to whitewash the country's repressive Stalinist past.{{Cite web|last=Nuzov|first=Ilya|date=2019-08-30|title=The Kremlin Is Trying to Whitewash Russia's Stalinist Past|url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/08/30/the-kremlin-is-trying-to-whitewash-russias-stalinist-past-a67096|access-date=2021-09-17|website=The Moscow Times}} On August 30, 2021, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the "attacks" on the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin are part of attacks on Russia's past and the results of World War II.{{Cite news|date=2021-08-30|title="Нападки на Сталина" и другие громкие заявления Сергея Лаврова|language=ru|trans-title="Attacks on Stalin" and other loud statements by Sergey Lavrov|work=BBC News Russian|url=https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-58364125|access-date=2021-09-17}}{{Cite web|date=2021-08-30|title=Sergey Lavrov calls criticism of Stalin's personality a threat to Russia|url=https://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/56593/|access-date=2021-09-17|website=Caucasian Knot}} Russian politician and former deputy of the State Duma {{Not translated|Alexei Melnikov|ru|Мельников, Алексей Юрьевич|arz|اليكسى ميلنيكوڤ}} said that Lavrov "made an attempt to whitewash Stalin, which clearly, during the period of repressive measures carried out by the authorities, showed the kinship of the authorities with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation – the same Stalin admirers." Russian literary critic and culturologist {{Not translated|Nikolai Podosokorsky|ru|Подосокорский, Николай Николаевич|hy|Նիկոլայ Պոդոսոկորսկի}} noted that "the whitewashing of domestic ghouls only indicates that the current rulers feel a spiritual kinship with them."{{Cite news|last=Belyaev|first=Ivan|date=2021-08-31|title="Духовное родство с упырями". Рунет об обелении Сталина|trans-title="Spiritual affinity with ghouls". Runet about whitewashing Stalin|url=https://www.svoboda.org/a/duhovnoe-rodstvo-s-upyryami-runet-ob-obelenii-stalina-i-malyuty-skuratova/31436284.html|access-date=2021-09-17|website=Radio Liberty|language=ru}}
See also
References
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External links
{{Commonscatinline}}
- [https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/king-commissar.html?_r=1&oref=slogin The Commissar Vanishes] - the whitewashes by Stalin.
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