hit piece

• hit-piece

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hit piece (plural hit pieces)

1. (journalism) A published article or post aiming to sway public opinion, especially by presenting false or biased information in a way that appears objective and truthful.

   Synonyms: slam piece, hatchet job

   Coordinate term: puff piece

   • 2013, Eric Dezenhall, John Weber, Damage Control […] , Easton Studio Press, →ISBN, page 126:

     And respectable media institutions do have their standards, but there is something insidious—and very human—at work in the preparation of a hit piece: the media's desire to believe in the evil of their targets.

   • 2014, Karen Young, Belle Pointe‎, Harlequin, →ISBN:

     “This isn't a profile, my dear sister-in-law, it's a hit piece.” “A hit piece?” Buck unfolded his copy of the Spectator and began looking for Anne's byline. “It's on page three,” Pearce told him helpfully.

   • 2019, Bret Easton Ellis, White‎, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN:

     She seemed so exacting and the magazine itself so impossibly glamorous to my college-kid sensibility, and did I really want to do a hit piece on an actor? […] And so the plan was set in motion: I would meet the actor Judd Nelson, find him appalling, and write about how awful hanging out with him had been.