Not the five bar things you're supposed to close behind you in the countryside or the metal things at the end of your garden path - but the media's insistence on appending the word 'gate' to any story that has the whiff of scandal about it. For heaven's sake - why?
I suppose it all started with the Watergate scandal of the early 1970's that eventually led to the impeachment of President Nixon, but as that centred on an office complex called "Watergate" there was a genuine reason for it. And as far as I remember there wasn't a sudden flurry of scandals having the word 'gate appended to them immediately after that. In fact, the earliest example I can recall of this strange journalistic quirk was the "Dianagate" (Squidgygate) incident of the early 1990's - but since then it seems to be happening more and more.
More often that not it doesn't catch on with the general public, but this doesn't seem to stop the press from doing it. It's typical of the lazy, jokey style of modern journalism which continues to amaze me with its ever lowering standards.
Just stop it.
1 comment:
How about 'Stangate' then?
London SE1. I once lived near there.
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