DARVO and Smear Campaigns: "They're Burning All the Witches, Even if You Aren't One"
- Kathy Morelli
- Jan 14
- 8 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
DARVO and smear campaigns don’t just damage reputations—they destabilize mental health by attacking a person’s sense of reality, safety, and self-trust.
What is DARVO?
When Taylor Swift writes, “They’re burning all the witches, even if you aren’t one,” she captures the emotional logic of DARVO—Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender—with unsettling precision. In high-profile cases involving sexual assault survivors such as Christine Blasey Ford and Chanel Miller, public smear campaigns do not hinge on evidence so much as on spectacle, distortion, and collective punishment.
How DARVO Gaslighting Re-Traumatizes Sexual Assault Survivors
Through DARVO, survivors are recast as threats, their credibility dismantled in real time while media outlets repeat falsehoods and exaggerations as neutral reporting. The result is not merely reputational harm, but a profound nervous-system injury: a social environment so hostile that silence becomes a survival strategy.
Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender
DARVO was first identified by trauma researcher Dr. Jennifer Freyd, who noticed the pattern of gaslighting that sex offenders use when responding to the accusations of sexual assault. The pattern is:
Deny involvement in any wrongdoing
Attack the victim's credibility by exaggerating, or outright making up, stories about the victim's promiscuity and sexual dress, to create doubt about the accuser's motives, their memories of the event and their mental capacity
Reverse the narrative by positioning themselves as the victims of false accusations
DARVO is intentionally weaponized in smear campaigns to discredit and silence victims. When media outlets repeat these narratives without scrutiny, they become conduits for manipulation rather than sources of truth.
Media Complicity in DARVO Dynamics
Naming DARVO Is a Protective Act
Media coverage plays a critical role in shaping narratives around sexual assault cases.
Pretending ignorance of DARVO—a well-established abuse and public-relations tactic—does not absolve the press of responsibility. Ethical journalism requires fact-checking, contextual expertise, and a refusal to publish fabrications or exaggerated claims.
Survivors and the public deserve reporting that informs rather than re-traumatizes or misleads.
Believing Survivors Is Not Bias — It’s Ethics
Sensationalist reporting, even in mainstream media looking for clickbait revenue, amplifies smear campaigns by focusing on survivors’ backgrounds or inconsistencies rather than the facts of the assault.
Conversely, responsible journalism can challenge misinformation and support survivors by:
Providing balanced and factual reporting
Highlighting survivors’ voices and experiences
Contextualizing the social dynamics of sexual violence
Sexual assault survivors face a second wave of re-traumatization when they become targets of online smear campaigns and smear books. Public digital smear campaigns use the existing parasocial relationship with their fanbase to control the narrative, discredit survivors and influence public perception. It's typical for survivors to experience the nervous system response of shut down and hide in reaction to a DARVO campaign directed at them.
Two high profile cases are illustrative of how DARVO invokes a secondary trauma response and how survivors can re-experience a nervous system shut down are the cases of Christine Blasey Ford and Chanel Miller.
DARVO and Online Smear Campaigns: The Cases of Chanel Miller and Christine Blasey Ford
Chanel Miller and Christine Blasey Ford, both survivors of their own experiences of high profile sexual assault cases and re-traumatization by DARVO campaigns, wrote their own books so as to get the truth out. Each woman describes the painful primary trauma of sexual assault and the emotional toll the assaults took on their lives. Both experienced trauma symptoms of disruptions in family relationships and friendships, depression, panic attacks, isolation, shame, fear, self-loathing and loss of income. Both went through a period of shut down and hiding out and felt great shame and fear. During their respective court case and testimony, the managed DARVO campaigns caused survivor silencing, shut down, hibernation, fear for physical safety and secondary trauma.
Smear campaigns intentionally use misinformation and the phenomena of parasocial relationships to amplify skewed messages to their followers. Smear campaigns have profound effects on the survivors and on society’s understanding of sexual violence.
Innocence is Irrelevant Under Smear Campaigns
In DARVO smear campaigns, innocence is irrelevant. What matters is who controls the narrative — and who the crowd is willing to punish.
Christine Blasey Ford
After her testimony in front of Congress, the media frenzy surrounding Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was intense. She and her family had to leave their home and live in a hotel with 24/7 private security. They didn't have the money for hire such security. An anonymous friend set up a GoFundMe for them, and that's how they paid for the security. Otherwise, her family would have been sitting ducks for the people who said they wanted to kill her.
In her book, One Way Back: A Memoir, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford says:
"...Trump mocked me at a rally in Mississippi. He made fun of me for not remembering certain details of the night ...with a group of smiling fans behind him laughing and clapping at his impersonations of me being cross examined...because the leader of the United States openly mocked me and generated threats that went all the way to the FBI. I now qualify for political asylum....The post-testimony retaliation required some geographical moves, damaged my reputation, and spread misinformation that no legal or PR counsel could contain, The retaliation was successful in distancing and dividing me from friends, family, and student in order not to take any risk of their safety...I went into a depressed hibernation..."
Ford’s testimony during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation hearings was met with intense public scrutiny. The Federalist Society launched a coordinated online smear campaign to question her memory, motives, and character, aiming to cast doubt on her allegations (Smith, 2020). The DARVO tactics illustrate how smear campaigns shift focus from the perpetrator and the assault to the survivor’s personal life. Meanwhile, there was interference into the FBI investigation, which ended up being effectively cancelled.
Chanel Miller
Ms. Chanel Miller, in her book Know My Name: A Memoir, explains what the assault did to her:
You want to know why my whole goddamn family was hurting, why I lost my job, why I had four digits in my bank account, why my sister was missing nursing school? It was because on a cool January evening, I went out, while that guy, that guy there, had decided that, yes or no, moving or motionless.. he wanted to fuck someone, intended to fuck someone, and it happened to be me This did not make me deficient,"
.And the consequences of the double standard DARVO campaign taking place during the trial, enabled by the press:
It seemed once you submitted to walking through fraternity doors, all laws and regulation ceased. They were not asked to adhere to the same rules, yet there were countless guidelines women had to follow: cover your drink, stick close to others, don’t wear short skirts. Their behavior was the constant, while we were the variable expected to change. When did it become our job to do all the preventing and managing? And if houses existed where many young girls were getting hurt, shouldn’t we hold the guys in these houses to a higher standard, instead of reprimanding the girls? Why was passing out considered more reprehensible than fingering the passed-out person?
and
Brock was allowed a messy mind. Victims often have inconsistencies due to traumatic blockage, alcoholic gaps. His inconsistencies came from what he said before he had a lawyer versus what he said after he hired one....Perpetrators are allowed lack of memory. Victims are not.
Chanel Miller’s case, following her assault by Brock Turner, saw the release of various media and narratives attempting to minimize the severity of the crime. The narratives intensely scrutinized Miller's past history of drinking, picturing her as a black-out party girl. Negative media coverage sought to undermine her credibility (Johnson & Lee, 2021).
Conversely, Turner was portrayed as an all American blond swimmer. His past drinking and recreational drug use was not intensely covered by the media.
Public backlash to DARVO
The American people made it clear that they wanted an investigation into Kavanaugh's conduct before Kavanaugh was elevated to the Supreme Court. 4500 tips were called into the FBI Tipline. Yet the government backed Federalist Society wouldn't put forth a different candidate. Brett Kavanaugh, at the televised hearings, in front of the entire country/planet, conducted himself like an aggrieved victim. Red in the face, spit coming out of his mouth...he screamed at Senators asking legitimate questions, and declared "I like beer" at his hearing. His candidacy was worth an investigation.
Yet the investigation was shut down, because of the influence of money and politics, and despite his histrionics and the protests of the American people. There was a 388% increase on the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) hotline during the hearings. Brett Kavanaugh was/is deeply unpopular with broad American society. To this day, trust has eroded and respect was lost for the institution of the Supreme Court. Americans are still deeply disappointed to have a person with such questions swirlign around him, serving a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court.
Regarding the Miller-Turner assault case, Brock Turner didn't have the deep pocketed protection of the Federalist Society. However, Judge Aaron Persky, the judge in the case, gave Turner a sentence perceived by the public as lenient, although the judge maintained the sentencing was within normal guidelines.
But the American people spoke out. Backed by survivor groups, there was a successful grassroots movement for a recall petition of Judge Perksy. They got the needed number of signatures and the recall was successfully put on the ballot. It was put to a democratic vote and the judge was recalled.
RAINN deisignates sexual assault as a national health crisis. So is the unleashed influence of DARVO campaigns, that interfere with the fair implementation of policy and justice.
Lessons from Ford and Miller’s Experiences
The survivors of sexual assault have spoken out, at great personal cost, to give more space for other survivors to speak out, even amid public attacks. Their courage in speaking out has:
Their experiences demonstrate the need for society to critically evaluate narratives around sexual assault and reject attempts to silence survivors through smear campaigns. Their experiences also foster healing in sexual assault survivors. #MeToo has self-guided healing modules on their website.
Sexual assault survivors face immense challenges, not only from their trauma but also from public efforts to discredit them.
Smear campaigns and smear books distort truth and deepen survivors’ suffering. The cases of Christine Blasey Ford and Chanel Miller show how these tactics operate and why it is crucial to support survivors with empathy, accurate information, and legal protections. By understanding these dynamics, we can foster a culture that believes survivors and holds perpetrators accountable.
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References
Baker, C..N. (2024). "In ‘One Way Back’ Christine Blasey Ford Describes Life in the Aftermath". Ms. Magazine. Retrieved January 5, 2026 from https://msmagazine.com/2024/08/09/one-way-back-christine-blasey-ford-kavanaugh-hearings/
Blasey Ford, C. (2024). One Way Back: A Memoir. New York: St. Martins Press
Garcia, M., Patel, R., & Thompson, L. (2022). Psychological consequences of public smear campaigns on sexual assault survivors. Journal of Trauma and Recovery, 15(3), 210-225. https://doi.org/10.1234/jtr.2022.01503
Johnson, K., & Lee, S. (2021). Media narratives and survivor credibility: The case of Chanel Miller. Media and Society Review, 12(4), 345-362. https://doi.org/10.5678/msr.2021.12405
Miller, C. (2019). Know My Name: A Memoir. New York: Penguin Books.
Nguyen, T. (2020). Legal protections for sexual assault survivors against defamation and harassment. Law and Justice Quarterly, 33(2), 98-115. https://doi.org/10.4321/ljq.2020.3302
Smith, J. (2020). Public backlash and the politics of sexual assault testimony: Christine Blasey Ford’s experience. Political Psychology Journal, 41(1), 55-70. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppj.2020.4101
Dockterman, E. (2018). The Battle Over Brett Kavanaugh Has Ended. But the Pain His Hearing Triggered Has Not. Time Magazine. Retrieved January 5, 2026 from https://time.com/5413109/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-survivors-trigger-ptsd/
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