A Rotten Herring is a propaganda tactic where fake scandals or distractions are thrown in to divert attention from real problems.
When bad news hits, authoritarians toss rotten herrings to make everyone look elsewhere.
🧵 #RottenHerring #FightDisinformation
When bad news hits, authoritarians toss rotten herrings to make everyone look elsewhere.
🧵 #RottenHerring #FightDisinformation
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🔹 A regime faces criticism or crisis
🔹 They introduce a scandal, accusation, or outrageous story
🔹 Media & public focus on the noise instead of the real issue
👉 If big scandals appear right as bad news breaks, suspect a distraction
🔹 When protests rise, Russian media runs wild stories:
“Opposition leaders are foreign spies”
“Navalny is a CIA agent”
"Outrageous celebrity gossip" floods headlines
👉 Distractions keep people from focusing on corruption and repression
🔹 The public is drawn to drama
🔹 Scandals trigger emotion, outrage, and curiosity
🔹 Attention shifts from serious issues to tabloid-level noise
👉 Rotten herrings exploit our short attention spans
🔹UK–Scandals about politicians’ private lives leak right before policy disasters
🔹Turkey–National security “alerts” announced when economic crises peak
🔹U.S.–Culture-war controversies drown out investigations or failures
👉 A noisy scandal often hides a silent failure
🔹 Timing—distractions appear just as bad news breaks
🔹 Overblown coverage on minor issues
🔹 The distraction pulls attention away from real harm
👉 If it smells fishy, it’s probably a rotten herring
🔹 Ask: What issue just got buried?
🔹 Stay focused on policy outcomes, not headlines
🔹 Don’t let clickbait dominate your attention
👉 Real problems don’t vanish because something louder appears
Fucking scum they are !!!
https://nafoforum.org/magazine/i-studied-at-the-faculty-of-journalism-of-moscow-state-university-vladimir-yakovlev-2016