A scandal involves widely publicised allegations of wrong-doing, disgrace or moral outrage. A scandal may be based on reality, or the product of false allegations.
Some scandals are broken by a whistle-blower revealing wrongdoing within an organization or a group. Falsely alleged scandals can lead to a witch-hunt against the innocent.
Often, an attempt to cover-up a scandal ignites a greater scandal when the cover-up fails.
Examples of actual or alleged scandals:
- Pacific scandal
- Watergate scandal
- Burrell affair
- Black Sox scandal
- Enron scandal
- Ford Pinto scandal
- Harken Energy Scandal
- Lockerbie scandal
- Monica Lewinsky scandal
- Teapot Dome scandal
- Whitewater scandal
- Profumo scandal
- American quiz show scandals of the 1950s
- Roman Catholic church sex abuse scandal
- Magadalene Sisters Asylum Scandal
- Classes of scandals:
- political scandals
- sex scandals
- Corporate accounting scandals
- Accounting scandals
- sporting scandals, of which Olympic Games scandals are a specialty
- American political scandals
- Australian political scandals
- British political scandals
- French political scandals
- German political scandals
- Italian political scandals