Scandal naming convention moves from something-gate to hash-initials

I had started to write a link to Alan Rusbridger’s account of The Guardian’s pursuit of the the whole #notw issue…

Early in 2009 there had been a similar moment. He’d discovered that James Murdoch, the son and heir of the most powerful private news-media company on earth, had done a secret deal to pay more than $1 million to cover up evidence of criminal behaviour within the company. Interested?

…when something struck me. For as long as I can remember, scandals, especially political ones, have always been something-gate, after the Watergate Building in DC. I’m sure the older hacks can tell me what the nomenclature was in the sixties and earlier.

But the 21st century might have changed that approach, because it’s hard to write a something-gate around this subject. But it’s very easy to say #notw. I blame Chris Messina.

The revolution will no longer be televised, it will be hashtagged.