This is a list of scandals or controversies whose names include a -gate suffix, by analogy with the Watergate scandal, as well as other incidents to which the suffix has (often facetiously) been applied.[1] This list also includes controversies that are widely referred to with a -gate suffix, but may be referred to by another more common name (such as the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal, known as "Bountygate"). Use of the -gate suffix has spread beyond American English to many other countries and languages.
The suffix -gate derives from the Watergate scandal in the United States in the early 1970s, which resulted in the resignation of US President Richard Nixon.[2] The scandal was named after the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., where the burglary giving rise to the scandal took place; the complex itself was named after the "Water Gate" area where symphony orchestra concerts were staged on the Potomac River between 1935 and 1965.[3]
The suffix has become productive as a libfix and is used to embellish a noun or name to suggest the existence of a far-reaching scandal, particularly in politics and government. As a CBC News column noted in 2001, the term may "suggest unethical behaviour and a cover-up".[4]
Such usage has been criticized by some commentators as clichéd and misleading.[5] James Stanyer comments that "revelations are given the 'gate' suffix to add a thin veil of credibility, following 'Watergate', but most bear no resemblance to the painstaking investigation of that particular piece of presidential corruption".[6] Stanyer links the widespread use of -gate to what the sociologist John Thompson calls "scandal syndrome":
[A] self-reproducing and self-reinforcing process, driven on by competitive and combative struggles in the media and political fields and giving rise to more and more scandals which increasingly become the focus of mediated forms of public debate, marginalizing or displacing other issues and producing on occasion a climate of political crisis which can debilitate or even paralyse a government.[7]
The adoption of -gate to suggest the existence of a scandal was promoted by William Safire, the conservative New York Times columnist and former Nixon administration speechwriter. As early as September 1974, he wrote of "Vietgate", a proposed pardon of the Watergate criminals and Vietnam War draft dodgers.[9] Subsequently, he coined numerous -gate terms, including Billygate, Briefingate, Contragate, Deavergate, Debategate, Doublebillingsgate (of which he later said "My best [-gate coinage] was the encapsulation of a minor ... scandal as doublebillingsgate"), Frankiegate, Franklingate, Genschergate, Housegate, Iraqgate, Koreagate, Lancegate, Maggiegate, Nannygate, Raidergate, Scalpgate, Travelgate, Troopergate, and Whitewatergate. The New York magazine suggested that his aim in doing so was "rehabilitating Nixon by relentlessly tarring his successors with the same rhetorical brush – diminished guilt by association".[10] Safire himself later said to author Eric Alterman that he "may have been seeking to minimize the relative importance of the crimes committed by his former boss with this silliness".[11]
The usage has spread into languages other than English; examples of -gate being used to refer to local political scandals have been reported from Argentina, Germany, South Korea, Hungary, Greece and the former Yugoslavia.[12] The term is also used in Mandarin Chinese with the suffix -mén (simplified Chinese: 门; traditional Chinese: 門; lit. 'door', 'gate').
Some commentators have characterized this use of the -gate suffix as a snowclone.[13] But Geoffrey Pullum, the coiner of the term snowclone, considers that it is only a "lexical word-formation analog".[14] Martha Brockenbrough, the founder of The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, said that no one should aspire to write with cliches and that although they do help to get a lot of complicated things across in few words, they are not a good way to get people to keep reading what you're writing.[15]
The use of a suffix in this way is not new. -mandering has long been used as a suffix by a politician's name in analogy with gerrymandering ("Henry-mandering" was used in 1852). In recent years, the -gate suffix as a catch-all signifier for scandal has seen some competition from -ghazi, as in "Ballghazi" instead of "Deflategate",[16] or "Bridgeghazi" instead of "Bridgegate".[17] The use of -ghazi is a play on the investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attack, which, despite numerous official investigations into the possibility of government cover-ups, has resulted in no criminal charges or major repercussions for the individuals supposedly involved. -ghazi may be seen as carrying an ironic or self-effacing connotation in its usage, implying that the event described has the appearance and media coverage of a scandal, but does not actually amount to much in a grander sense.[18]
Like the -gate suffix, the Italian -opoli suffix emerged in Italian media from investigations in the 1990s that uncovered a system known as Tangentopoli.[19] The term derives from tangente, which means 'kickback' (e.g., bribery given for public works contracts),[20] and -(o)poli, meaning 'city'. Examples of snowclone-like use of -opoli include Bancopoli (a financial scandal) and Calciopoli (a 2006 Italian football scandal).
These scandals have been given the -gate suffix.
The controversy was a major point of discussion and contention during the 2016 presidential election, in which Clinton was the Democratic nominee. In July, FBI director James Comey announced that the FBI investigation had concluded that Clinton had been "extremely careless" but recommended that no charges be filed because Clinton did not act with criminal intent, the historical standard for pursuing prosecution.[163]
Clinton claimed that her use complied with federal laws and State Department regulations, and that former secretaries of state had also maintained personal email accounts (however Clinton was the only secretary of state to use a private server).[164] Unlike the official system, which was hacked by the Russians, her private system was never hacked.
The event was coined 'fridgegate' with a number of memes being created and the tag '#fridgegate' trending on Twitter.
In Malta, Panamagate refers to a March 2016 scandal surrounding Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi with an undeclared trust in New Zealand and a company in Panama.[264]
In Pakistan, the Panama Papers case, or Panamagate case, resulted in the disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from holding public office for 10 years.[265]
These conspiracy theories have been given the -gate suffix by both supporters and critics of them.
The suffix has also been commonly used in the context of popular media, including satirical usage by television pundits and viewers of reality shows.
All these gates are examples of a snowclone, a type of clichéd phrase defined by the linguist Geoffrey Pullum as 'a multi-use, customisable, instantly recognisable, timeworn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different variants'. Examples of a typical snowclone are: grey is the new black, comedy is the new rock'n'roll, Barnsley is the new Naples, and so on.
Xgate as a snowclone? Not quite. I see the conceptual similarity, but the very words he quotes show that I originally defined the concept (in this post) as a phrase or sentence template. The Xgate frame is a lexical word-formation analog of it, an extension of the concept from syntax into derivational morphology.
In the segment, which aired May 30, 2018, Bee derided Ivanka Trump's choice to post a photo of herself posing with her infant son as the Trump administration's family-separation policy caused turmoil at the border. "You know, Ivanka, that's a beautiful photo of you and your child," Bee said on the show, "but let me just say, one mother to another: Do something about your dad's immigration practices, you feckless cunt!"
Something shady (but also not-so-shady) is afoot.
"Outdated laws limit penalties the city can issue," writes L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia
As the Brothelgate crisis deepened, members of the parliamentary party scrambled to see if Willie O'Dea's promised vindication would be contained in the pages of the paper's country edition.
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M. Roudani, spécialiste des relations internationales, a fait observer que le limogeage de la ministre espagnole des affaires étrangères, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, suite au large remaniement ministériel opéré samedi, a été précipité par la gestion catastrophique de l'affaire "GhaliGate".
Le « GhaliGate » a laissé également des traces sur la relation avec Madrid, estime ce spécialiste français en défense et sécurité.
The scandal, dubbed "Iraqgate" by local media, took a new turn when Jaatteenmaki spoke to a full parliament saying she had not actively sought the secret documents.
Jurmalgate (Latvian: Jūrmalgeita) is a label that combines two words: Jurmala and -gate (following Watergate). This label has been given to the attempt to corrupt the process of selecting the mayor of Jurmala, a wealthy sea-side resort in Latvia.
"Jurmalgate" – The scandal involved attempts by politicians and business people to bribe a critical swing vote in the 2005 election of the Jurmala city mayor.
Nazarbayev spoke publicly about the case – dubbed Kazakhgate – only once, and dismissed allegations of his involvement as "insinuations and a provocation
The firing of seven members of the White House travel office in 1993, possibly to make room for Clinton friends – Followed by an FBI investigation of the office, allegedly opened under pressure from the White House to justify the firings. Sometimes called "Travelgate".
What became known as "Tunagate" erupts after this Fifth Estate report airs on 17 September 1985. The CBC's Eric Malling reveals that Progressive Conservative Fisheries Minister John Fraser had knowingly approved a million cans of rancid Star-Kist tuna for sale.
The ongoing Louisville "Strippergate" major NCAA investigation was back in the news this week as the NCAA Enforcement Staff fired back at the University of Louisville's and head men's basketball coach Rick Pitino.
And yet the cumulative effect of sordid events, from the Karen Sypher extortion case to "Strippergate" to the possibility of Louisville becoming the first school forced to take down a championship banner to the most recent allegations of recruiting violations by a staff member, became far too much to bear.
[Tom] Jurich refused to fire Pitino despite a string of public embarrassments, including Pitino's affair with a woman who was later sent to prison for trying to extort him, and "Strippergate", in which a Pitino assistant coach, over a period of four years, brought in dancers and prostitutes to entertain recruits at a university dorm.
It may have been difficult to watch, but ButterflyGate, as it's come to be known online, is unlikely to define Asia.
But in truth, Asia's problems started long before butterfly-gate.
Aquaria went on to win the final after a three-way lip sync battle for the crown, but to be honest we never truly recovered from butterfly-gate.
And then she threw the sponge into the audience and we had butterflygate.
Luckily, they all fare pretty well in the second half of the challenge, so we are not treated to a meat-dress rehash of season eight's kimono-gate.
It was 'kimono-gate' all over again.
This week, the runway was dedicated to re-doing 'Night of 1000 Madonnas' since last season's run incited 'kimono-gate,' where four queens all were wearing kimono Madonna looks.
#MaskGate is shocking and, well, damn good TV. But beyond the inevitable social media firestorm that #MaskGate will stir up, it brings up general issues surrounding RPDR as a show and cultural influence.
That's the question that had Drag Race fans tweeting about #Maskgate.
With tullegate resolved, the queens moved on to talk about some family matters.
I'm glad cardboard-gate didn't turn into tulle-gate 2.0
Tullegate aside, we were really feeling Raja on this particular episode!
Vanjie tries to steer Ariel back on track, but this is not the last the audience will hear about Wig-gate 2019.
All we learned from WigGate is that even the most ridiculous nonstories can lead to a good sound bite