What does this mean?

[Belly #12]

Hey guys,
sorry if this sounds stupid, but what does 'gate' refer to in two of the top news stories of the year: 'Chickengate' and 'Utegate'
It's just something that bugs me because it sounds really dumb.


cheers

 

[SHAKESPEARE]

Watergate

It means a huge scandal, as Watergate was.

 

[rofltown]

Its kind of like a running joke now everytime thers some kind of scandal they put gate on it. Generally now its for less serious things like the ute-gate bs.

 

[Belly #12]

Ohh, okay, thanks!

 

[USAEagle]

Fountaingate...

 

[PunyHumans!!!]

Its one of the most overused and annoying terms to describe any scandal

 

[The Passenger]

yeah i'm over-it. i didn't mind it being used occasionally but it's gotten into overkill territory now.

the other media term i hate is combining names - like brangelina... disgusting. even the footy media got into with frankhead and brownshaw which was even more disgusting

 

[Ricketts]

 

[Deledinho]

yeah i'm over-it. i didn't mind it being used occasionally but it's gotten into overkill territory now.

the other media term i hate is combining names - like brangelina... disgusting. even the footy media got into with frankhead and brownshaw which was even more disgusting

I agree, they can piss right off with that. Not only is it incredibly lazy, the thing that annoys me the most about it is they start using them and keep doing so without so much as any explanation to what the two things were in the first place.

And LOL at Southgate.

 

[The Passenger]

And LOL at Southgate.

thank **** someone mentioned it. i was looking for about 10 minutes earlier trying to work out who it was - had his name of the tip of my tongue the whole time too.

 

[Embers]

Relegation I think

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

Sirengate.

Whispers in the skygate.

Rapegate.

Tankgate.

It's catching on,

 

[THRILLHO]

Im pretty sure it's a massive media in-joke now, but it is a really annoying and grating aspect of the media. They are using gate as a suffix, as in -gate, but the original use of the term did not have gate as a suffix, rather as part of the word. If you interpret watergate as the gate being a suffix, then the whole controversy becomes an affair about water and not about the hotel at the centre of the controversy 'Watergate' hotel.

Infuriating and annoying. Just laziness.