Results for cover-up
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Dictionary:

cover-up

  (kŭv'ər-ŭp')
or cov·er·up n.
  1. An effort or strategy of concealment, especially a planned effort to prevent something potentially scandalous from becoming public.
  2. A loose garment for wear over other clothing, such as a swimsuit or an evening dress.

 
 
Idioms: cover up


1.  Wrap up or enfold in order to protect. For example, Be sure to cover up the outdoor furniture in case of rain, or It's cold, so be sure to cover up the baby. [Late 1800s]
2.  Conceal something, especially a crime, as in The opposition accused the President of covering up his assistant's suicide. [c. 1920]


 
Word Tutor: cover-up
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: n. - Concealment that attempts to prevent something scandalous from becoming public.

Tutor's tip: She moved the jacket to "cover up" (to cover entirely or wrap) the memo about the "cover-up" (attempt to conceal dishonest or illegal acts).

 
Wikipedia: cover-up


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.

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.

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.

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

Alleged cover-ups

These are alleged conspiracy theories that are still up for debate, hard evidence or not.

See also

References


 
 

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved.
eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cover-up" Read more

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