A plea to my colleagues in the business
The point has been made before but bears repeating: enough with the scandal-gates already.
The Watergate break-in happened on June 17, 1972. President Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974. And “All the President’s Men” – my all-time favorite movie – was released April 9, 1976.
Since then there has been nary a scandal, large or small, that has failed to be dubbed (Fill in the blank)-gate. The practice has been hackneyed for so long that calling it hackneyed is hackneyed. Heck, it had jumped the shark even before The Fonz jumped that shark (Sept. 20, 1977).
Yet a cursory search of only the tech headlines this morning turns up (in multiple languages, no less): Sonygate, PlayStationGate, Locationgate, iPhone-gate, Trackinggate, and Privacygate.
There’s even a Thicknessgate. … Honestly, that was the one that pushed me into rant mode.
Of course, I do understand that this plea will go unheeded. Gate-ification is no more likely to go away than the birthers. However, if I can give just one headline writer pause, spare the world so much as a single instance-gate, it will have been worth the time.
And I feel better now.
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