Meaning of propaganda laundering | Babel Free

Definitions

The act of legitimizing misinformation by presenting it in the same manner as widely trusted news sources, in order to increase its exposure and lend it credibility with the target audience; in some cases, the process may be repeated several times, through increasingly trusted sources.

uncountable

Examples

“Hybrid War Propaganda Laundering … Naturally, these entities are not setting the agenda or calling the shots. They have been assigned a number of roles by the political elites. First of all, they are supposed to engage in veritable “propaganda laundering.” Much as banks provide legitimacy to funds obtained through illegal or immoral means, Bellingcat, White Helmets, and others turn what would otherwise be recognized as propaganda into “breaking news”–style stories that are then run, with reference to the NGO in question rather than the true source of the disinformation, by the mainstream media.”

“In some cases, the sites engage in a sort of propaganda laundering. A story might be barely a rewrite of a politician’s press release. That story, in turn, will be cited by the same politician in a tweet or ad, giving the position credence from a legitimate-sounding news outlet.”

“These developments involving LN [Literární noviny] and [Marek] Hrubec were not the first episodes of propaganda laundering in the Czech Republic.”

CEFR level