smear

He managed to get a credit card cleared, but his home was eventually repossessed, and he said he had such little money to spend on food that his meals consisted of bread smeared with ketchup.

Collaborating with cinematographer Maceo Bishop, Safdie developed an unusual look for the film, meant to evoke the smeared visual style of the era of early digital video covered by the film.

He said an attorney had warned him that The Times was doing a “smear article” and didn’t want plaintiffs like him receiving any money from the settlement.

"These incidents come after months of smears and rhetoric by activists, politicians, and the media comparing ICE law enforcement to the Nazi Gestapo, kidnappers, and the Secret Police," a senior official said at the time.

The Discayas were summoned by the Senate and the House of Representatives for investigations, and authorities blacklisted their firm, while protesters smeared the gates to their office with mud and spray-painted the word "thief".