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| President Richard M. Nixon Courtesy: AP |
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter
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In the early 1970s, five men broke into the office of the Democratic National Committee, which was part of the Watergate Complex. The suspects were tied to then President Richard M. Nixon and the Watergate Scandal was born. You know how that story ends. What I'm addressing today is the media's constant adding of the word "gate" to other so-called scandals.
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| Ryan Lochte Courtesy: USA Today |
Just this week LochteGate became a thing. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte and three others claimed they'd been robbed at gunpoint in Brazil. Turns out they lied. Then there's Tom Brady's DeflateGate scandal. Chris Christie was the focus of BridgeGate and Bill Clinton was a key player in MonicaGate after his affair with Monica Lewinsky and the lies he told as a result. Even lesser controversies received the "gate" moniker, like Janet Jackson's nip slip at the Superbowl in 2004 was called NippleGate.
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| Watergate complex |
I was talking to a coworker the other day who brought up an interesting point. It makes no sense to add the word "gate" to these situations. By doing so it implies that the original scandal, Watergate, had something to do with water. As we've established, it didn't. Watergate is the name of the building complex.
Sure there are bigger things to worry about, but with the recent "gates" being thrown out there, I thought I'd give it some perspective. The media (yes I'm part of it) needs just report the events and not try to oversell the situation.
