Systematic smear campaign against Blake Lively and how we are being manipulated with social media

[helene123]

Feel like this should be shared far and wide. Not just how she was systematically bullied by “crisis management publicists” funded by Scooter Braun but how we are being manipulated using social media channels that amplify and fund voices and journalists to sway opinions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/business/media/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-it-ends-with-us.html?unlocked_article_code=1.jE4.0Si9.sd8SqONIYxFw&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

I’m glad the stranglehold grip on Hollywood is beginning to loosen. Hopefully more whistleblowers will come forward, especially from other institutions or industries

Wow. I remember reading a lot of different articles about this at the time.

I hope she wins the lawsuit and that makes the work of these crisis management teams in the spotlight.

The other thread in this is full of JB defenders. It is sickening.

I agree it’s awful what’s happening on the other thread full of JB defenders. Mumsnet is not immune to unknown strangers pushing their own agendas and narratives.

Totally agree. It's pretty predictable though- powerful men lash out when their sleazy behaviour is called out.

This bit infuriated me:
"This month, he was honored at a star-studded event celebrating men who “elevate women, combat gender-based violence and promote gender equality worldwide.”

Maybe we should, post-Gisele, pause this kind of event for a while? I think we're approaching a 'guilty until proven innocent' kinda place as a society when it comes to men.

I have no idea who any of these people are.

If Braun is involved I'll safely take the other side then.

I've just been reading about it. Imagine just doing your job and someone doing what he did. It really sounds he went out of his way to humiliate her.

Google is easy to use and free!

Where do you get your news from? There's long articles in The Times and the Telegraph as well as on the BBC website.

Wow! Glad BL is taking this to court. Someone lower down the food chain would not have felt able to speak out. Colour me surprised thst the Mail has it's grubby pawprinrts all over this too. The clearly font do even minimal journalistic investigation so shouldn't really be considered a newspaper.

There is a pretty well known author called Colleen Hoover who writes decent books usually of the romance category but with serious underlying themes. Colleen Hoover’s most famous book is called “It Ends With Us”. This is a book about domestic violence and it was very much shaped by Colleen Hoover’s own experience of domestic violence as a child.

The book made the New York Times bestseller list. It is very very powerful indeed.

A film was made of the book. Blake Lively played the main female character. Justin Baldoni played the main male character and was also the director. (And I think he owns the company that owns rights to the film.)

Kevin Maher has done an excellent comment piece in the Times about the ridiculousness of Baldoni's feminist ally award. Paraphrasing - why would you need an award because you think women shouldn't be abused and be paid the same as men - surely that's normal. What's next? I'm not a serial killer award.

Nor me, but more power to any woman who speaks out against this sort of thing.

Wow this is fascinating and so scary, at one point my tiktok feed was full of Blake Lively slander although most of it was extremely tenuous.

Has anyone seen Ryan Reynolds Xmas film with Will Ferrel, spirited? He plays the “unredeemable” morally grey public relations media consultant. When I saw this news I instantly thought that he had chosen that job for his protagonist in response to his wife’s situation, but I just found out it’s a couple of years old. In the film (not a spoiler it’s a small part of the story) there is a suicide as a result of a social media smear campaign so I imagine it might be the hill Blake would die on, and good for her for having the strength to fight this. 💐💐💐

Agree. And the fact that she is well known and married to Ryan Reynolds so has the means and reputation to do it will help other, less powerful women, still threatened and abused in Hollywood even after they were busy #metoo virtue signalling.

The Mail article is interesting. They try to drag Taylor Swift into the whole mess (not surprising if Braun is involved) and the comments are solidly behind Blake. The Mail is once again misreading it's audience. Evidence is evidence and people can be decent.

Oh I didn't think they'd report it, as they are implicated in BL's case. I'll have a read of it.

The article itself is annoying but the comments are taking no rubbish

The marketing thing was deliberate. It’s in the full legal docs. The original marketing plan (as agreed and supported by Colleen Hoover) was supposed to focus on the Lily character and her strength in the face of what happened. Which is why all the early marketing focus on flowers and romance.

I can see why Blake thought self care in the form
of hair care and wearing floras matched that marketing script.

The subversion by Baldoni (where he was scraping the internet for survivor stories to make himself look like a decent human being) made for look out of touch. She didn’t know he would do it. Had no idea why he’d changed his script and it made her look crazy. Classic gaslights. What a bastard.

And knowing what we know now, he was probably getting off on those stories coming into his DMs

This is the systematic part I feel is so important to understand and make more transparent at a detailed level. Too much happening in the shadows. We know the feeds we get are no accident and the groundswell that publicists create and amplify to “influence the narrative” algorithms can have terrible consequences for individuals and organisations. But it’s also how we get influenced in forming our opinions and choices including how we vote. It’s propaganda and there needs to be more investigation into the systematic element. This should not be a one off story about BL.

People have wondered why she took so long to file. But it takes time to build a legal position and gather evidence. And she certainly didn’t want to be accused of impacting the movie’s profits. She’s rich enough to step forward it but it’s still a very brave and bold position for her to take knowing it could and will generate further negativity on her. My feeds are already full of that backlash on her today. The NY Times story is already buried on their website. It’s appalling.

I read this article today and agreed with every word. I never trust these bearded woke lefties who sing out how feminist they are - it’s all bullshit and they’ve always got porn addiction or a horrible history using women, or they’re using it to pick up more women.
No decent bloke needs to announce that he’s a good guy, they just are.

I'm pleased there's a thread on this. This is one of the first times I've felt I really experienced this manipulation (and was influenced by it). I did notice it before with Amber Heard but could see through it. Whereas on this occasion I was swayed by the extent of the negative coverage on my TikTok/instagram. Obviously I wasn't baying for blood as BL's 'crimes' still seemed minor, but I was convinced that she was a tone deaf diva.

The Complaint (https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/1629cc34e562e325/4410b1d9-full.pdf) makes interesting reading.

Well done BL for standing up for herself and others on set, and for refusing to be beaten down by this smear campaign. Utterly depressing that this is still happening even to powerful women in Hollywood. And even more depressing that there are so many new ways to manipulate people into turning against women on the internet.

The awful publicist actually had it spot on when she said "It's actually sad because it just shows you have [sic] people really want to hate on women."