Not long ago, a historian reminded me that history is not linear. It isn’t. It is full of progress and setbacks.
One of the causes of scientific, educational, and social regressions—especially those moving toward greater freedom and equality—is the persecution and slander aimed at intellectuals, scientists, men and women alike. The goal of publicly discrediting them is to prevent their knowledge from negatively affecting the economic interests, image, or academic status of certain groups or individuals.
Through false accusations and insinuations about their sexual lives or intimate behavior, the intent is to destroy their reputation. In some cases, the damage has been repaired—sometimes posthumously. Today, the justice system applies mechanisms to at least partially compensate for the harm done.
Santiago Ramón y Cajal was accused of misogyny in the press. In 1985, his family won the right to a legal rectification against a print media outlet that attributed unproven claims to him. In the case of Hedy Lamarr, full reparation is still pending. Lamarr, an actress and inventor of the precursor to Wi-Fi, had a book titled Ecstasy and Me: My Life as a Woman published by two ghostwriters without her consent or control over the content. The text—filled with sensationalism and slander that she described as unfounded and fabricated—caused a media scandal that severely damaged her public image, sexualizing her. Lamarr sued for falsehood, but lost the case, and her career was deeply affected.
Mathematician William James Sidis was defamed through sensationalist articles about his sexual life, insinuating disorders and deviant intimate behavior. In the 1930s, he sued The New Yorker for defamation and invasion of privacy. He won the case and received compensation. Physicist and chemist Marie Curie was slandered in the media for alleged adultery and subjected to scandals that questioned her morality. Her image has since been restored, and with her two Nobel Prizes, she is now a scientific icon.
More recently, climatologist Michael E. Mann suffered severe attacks by media commentators regarding his sexuality. Without any basis or formal accusations, he was publicly compared to a pedophile. In 2024, he won a defamation lawsuit and was awarded $1 million in damages.
Analyzing the consequences of spreading certain information is an ethical act of responsibility. That’s why it’s important to ask what consequences the publication of anonymous accusations in the media will have—both for the individual affected and for society—and to apply standards that ensure the information is verified, evidence is presented, or that formal complaints exist.
The media and its professionals bear great responsibility in shaping public opinion—and even more so when it comes to figures in the scientific field. Slander not only has the power to destroy a person’s private life but also to halt the progress of their contributions to society and science.
Former Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; she is currently a Visiting Academic at the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh.