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When a scandal breaks, the discovery of an attempt to cover up the evidence of wrongdoing is often regarded as even more scandalous than the original deeds.
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.
Some cover-ups must be 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.
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.
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. This is often counter-productive, allowing the disease to spread unchecked when precautions could be taken. AIDS and avian flu have been covered up in the first few years of the 21st century. In 2006 China has been more open about avian flu, which has helped in dealing with an epizootic.
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.
- 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.g., Nick Leeson). 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 9/11 conspiracy theories cover-up
- The 1996 U.S. campaign finance scandal
- The Dreyfus Affair
- The Dutch Tessa-case
- 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 Watergate scandal
- The cover-up of the incidence of AIDS in a number of countries.
- The cover-up of the incidence of avian flu in a number of countries.
- The cover-up of the incident of ebola cases in Washington, D.C.
See also
References
"Cover-up"