Editing Cover-up (section)

==Modern usage==
{{More citations needed section|date=April 2020}}

[[File:Ambassador Morgenthau's Story p314.jpg|thumb|The Ottoman government attempted to ban foreigners from taking photographs such as this one of [[Armenian genocide]] victims in an effort to cover up the genocide.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Akçam |first1=Taner|author-link=Taner Akcam |title=Killing Orders: Talat Pasha's Telegrams and the Armenian Genocide|title-link=Killing Orders |date=2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-69787-1 |language=en|page=157}}</ref>]]
When a [[scandal]] breaks, the discovery of an attempt to cover up the truth is often regarded as even more reprehensible than the original deeds.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}

Initially, a cover-up may require a lot of effort, but it will be carried out by those closely involved with the misdeed.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} This may be regarded as tacit approval of that behaviour.{{citation needed|date=December 2009}}

It is likely that some cover-ups are successful, although by definition this cannot be confirmed. Many{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} 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.

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 [[bribe]]s, in some cases suspicious suicides or outright [[murder]]) that the cover-up becomes much more serious than the original crime.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} This gave rise to the phrase, "it's not the crime, it's the cover-up".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Carlson |first1=Margaret |title=With Trump, It's Not the Cover-Up. It's the Crime. |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/with-trump-its-not-the-cover-up-its-the-crime |access-date=29 December 2020 |work=The Daily Beast |date=23 October 2019 |language=en}}</ref>

Cover-ups do not necessarily 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 may be 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.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}} 

Real cover-ups are common enough, but any event that is not completely clear is likely to give rise to a thicket of [[conspiracy theories]] alleging covering up of sometimes the weirdest and most unlikely conspiracies.