Truth & Lies

Scandals shock and fascinate us. They reveal the lies and missteps of the rich and powerful. Scandals ignite debates and are engines of social change. But scandals are not a modern phenomenon. They have accompanied human history since ancient times. Liam O'Rinn looks at the history of scandals and shows how they have changed over time.

While scandals were still spread by word of mouth in ancient times, the media gradually acquire an increasingly important role in the scandalization process. They uncover missteps and make them accessible to a large audience. But they too can become the focus of the scandal, as the London Times and Stern press scandals show. In the digital age, whistleblowers are the newest players in the scandalization process.