Enough is enough, journalists have to shut the 'gate'. This has become a case of Gategate. Tonight I heard, in response to a political party's costings being a bit dodgy, journalists had labelled the news as 'CostingsGate'. Really, is that the best they could come up with. I imagine the alternatives were probably AdditionGate, calculatorGate or perhaps Fudging the figuresGate.
However, journalists lack of imagination for their craft is only half of my frustration. Suffixing a term with 'gate' originates from the original Watergate scandal. Younger people may think that this was some massive scandal about the state of water. It was of course, the scandal resulting from the break in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington DC which resulted in the resignation of President Nixon. Nothing to do with water at all. Or perhaps the whole president standing down thing was just a diversion from a massive water scandal that was successfully covered up. I'll say no more on that, they might be still watching.
Back to journalists. Stop it. If I hear one more gate reference I may well go crazy and the students at my school may have to declare a LoopyGate scandal in reference to my altered state of mind. Here are a few of the many many examples: Tigergate, Monicagate, Utegate. I won't go on, there are hundreds. I will mention my favorite/most hated though. This one refers to two formula one racing car drivers who may have lied about driving to team orders while under safety car conditions. What did they call this "scandalous" lie. LieGate of course.
There are so many more creative things these scandals/interesting blips on the radar could be named, after all journalists are meant to be experts in manipulating the language. If it continues I would support editors around the world instituting a comprehensive YourFiredGate initiative.
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