When a scandal breaks, the discovery of an attempt to cover up or conceal the evidence of wrongdoing is often regarded as even more scandalous than the original deeds. A scandal is a widely Publicized incident that involves Allegations of wrongdoing, disgrace or moral outrage

Initially a cover-up may require little effort; it will be carried out by those closely involved with the misdeed. Once some hint of the hidden matter starts to become known, the cover-up gradually draws all the top leadership, at least, of an organization into complicity in covering up a misdeed or even crime that may have originally been committed by a few of its members acting independently. This is often regarded as tacit approval of that behaviour.

It is likely that some cover-ups are successful although by definition this cannot be confirmed. Many fail, however, as more and more people are drawn in and the possibility of exposure makes potential accomplices fearful of supporting the cover-up and as loose ends that may never normally have been noticed start to stand out. As it spreads, the cover-up itself creates yet more suspicious circumstances.

An analogy might be something hidden under a pile of twigs. Even if it shows a little, people may walk past without noticing. Once somebody becomes a little suspicious, the pile will rapidly be surrounded by curious onlookers scrutinising it closely and poking at it; and by nervous conspirators looking for chinks and covering them with more twigs, creating a bigger pile which will tend to collapse and shed twigs.

The original misdeed being covered may be relatively minor, such as the 'third-rate burglary' which started the Watergate scandal, but the cover-up adds so many additional crimes (obstruction of justice, perjury, payoffs and bribes, in some cases suspicious suicides or outright murder) that the cover-up becomes much more serious than the original crime. The Watergate scandals were a series of Political scandals during the presidency of Richard Nixon that resulted in the Indictment of several of Nixon's The crime of obstruction of justice includes crimes committed by Judges Prosecutors attorneys general, and elected officials in general Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the act of lying or making verifiably false statements on a material matter under Oath or Affirmation in a Bribery, a form of pecuniary corruption is an act usually implying money or gift given that alters the behaviour of the recipient in ways not consistent with the duties of that person Murder is the unlawful killing of another human person with Malice aforethought, as defined in Common Law countries

Cover-ups do not require the active manipulation of facts or circumstances. Arguably the most common form of cover-up is one of non-action. It is the conscious failure to release incriminating information by a third party. This "passive cover-up" is often justified by the motive of not wanting to embarrass the culprit or expose them to criminal prosecution or even the belief that the cover-up is justified by protecting the greater community from scandal. Yet, because of the passive cover-up, the misdeed often goes undiscovered and results in harm to others ensuing from its failure to be discovered. (In Catholic Moral Theology this would be considered the Sin of omission and a Mortal sin)

Real cover-ups are common enough, but any event which is not completely clear is likely to give rise to a thicket of conspiracy theories alleging covering up of sometimes the most weird and unlikely conspiracies. Ethics is a branch of Philosophy dealing with right and wrong in human behavior Omission is in Catholic teaching the failure to do something one can and ought to do Mortal sin, according to the beliefs of Roman Catholicism, and some Protestant denominations is a Sin that unless confessed and absolved (or at least A conspiracy theory attributes the ultimate cause of an event or chain of events (usually Political, Social or Historical events or the concealment

A cover-up need not involve wrong-doing. In a number of countries the incidence of epidemics of contagious diseases is often covered up, possibly because of national pride rather than to forestall panic. In Epidemiology, an epidemic (from Greek epi- upon + demos people is a classification of a disease that appears as new cases in a An infectious disease is a clinically evident Disease resulting from the presence of Pathogenic microbial agents including Pathogenic viruses Pathogenic Patriotism is commonly defined as love of and/or devotion to one's country This is often counter-productive, allowing the disease to spread unchecked when precautions could be taken. AIDS and avian influenza have been covered up in the first few years of the 21st century. For the H5N1 subtype of Avian influenza see H5N1. Avian influenza, sometimes Avian flu, and commonly Bird flu refers In 2006 China has been more open about avian flu, which has helped in dealing with an epizootic. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National In Epizoology, an epizootic (from Greek epi- upon + zoion animal is a Disease that appears as new cases in a given animal population

"Snowjob" is an American colloquialism for a lie, deception or a cover-up; for example, Helen Gahagan Douglas described the Nixon Administration as "the greatest snow job in history. Helen Gahagan ( November 25, 1900 – June 28, 1980) was an American actress and (under the name Helen Gahagan "^[1]

Reasons

As commentators note, "Why even cover-up a crime if the cover-up is going to make things worse?" There are reasons:

• As noted earlier, some cover-ups are successful. Those are the ones we never hear about, or are left to conspiracy theory advocates who find that without evidence their theories can be ignored by the mainstream. A conspiracy theory attributes the ultimate cause of an event or chain of events (usually Political, Social or Historical events or the concealment
• The people committing the crime and/or subsequent cover-up can be operating on the assumptions that "We're too smart to get caught," or otherwise believe in an arrogant fashion they are above the law.
• The people committing the cover-up may think, or hope, that they can control the investigation in some way. (This can shade into sheer irrational panic and fear of revealing unpalatable information, A common example is the embezzler who loses money he intended to "borrow" by gambling or speculating (e. Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets usually financial in nature by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted g. , Nick Leeson). Nicholas Leeson (born February 25, 1967) is a former derivatives trader whose unsupervised speculative trading caused the collapse of Barings He or she then covers up by "borrowing" more and more money to cover ever-increasing losses, instead of making a clean breast of matters when they are relatively small. )
• The misdeed committed may be linked somehow to other misdeeds, and the cover-up occurs in order to keep all those others from being known. The attempted Watergate cover-up was partly to hide other covert illegal activities.

Examples

• The Dreyfus Affair
• The Iran-contra affair
• The My Lai Massacre
• The Plame Affair scandal
• The Roman Catholic sex abuse cases of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The Dreyfus Affair a Political scandal which divided France from the 1890s to the early 1900s The Iran-Contra affair was a political scandal which was revealed in November 1986 as a result of earlier events during the Reagan administration. The My Lai Massacre ( approximately) (thảm sát Mỹ Lai was the Mass murder of 347 to 504 unarmed citizens of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam almost The phrase Plame Affair (also known as the CIA leak scandal, the CIA leak case, the CIA leak grand jury investigation, and Plamegate) refers Allegations of sexual abuse of children have been made against a variety of religious groups including but not exclusively Roman Catholic priests monks and nuns
• The Watergate scandal
• The Pusztai affair, Monsanto and the genetically modified potatoes. The Watergate scandals were a series of Political scandals during the presidency of Richard Nixon that resulted in the Indictment of several of Nixon's Árpád Pusztai ( September 8, 1930) is a Hungarian -born Protein scientist who has spent most of his career from 1968-1995 at the Rowett The Monsanto Company ( is a multinational Agricultural biotechnology Corporation. Genetic engineering, Recombinant DNA technology, genetic modification/manipulation (GM and gene splicing are terms that apply to the direct

Alleged cover-ups

These are alleged conspiracy theories that are still up for debate, hard evidence or not. A conspiracy theory attributes the ultimate cause of an event or chain of events (usually Political, Social or Historical events or the concealment

• Sinking of the RMS Titanic
• Roswell UFO incident
• UFOs in general
• New World Order
• Jesus' sexuality
• John F. Kennedy assassination
• September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

See also

• Propaganda
• Media manipulation
• Gatekeepers

References