# Weinergate

Weinergate is the Watergate-style nickname that stuck to a May 2011 Twitter mess involving New York Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner, after his account publicly posted a crotch shot that was meant to be a direct message. The flub ended his congressional career inside a month and turned his surname into shorthand for every politician sexting slip that came after.

## Origin
On May 27th, 2011, Anthony Weiner's Twitter account posted a link to a yfrog photo of a man in grey boxer briefs with a visible erection, directed at a 21-year-old journalism student at a Washington State community college[5]. Weiner's initial public line was that his account had been hacked. On June 1st, journalist Anthony De Rosa published an EXIF-data breakdown of the picture on his Tumblr showing that its metadata did not match other photos Weiner had posted from his phone, undercutting the hack story[3]. Six days later Weiner called a press conference in Manhattan and admitted the tweet was his, saying he had meant to send it as a direct message 'as a joke' and that he had carried on inappropriate chats with several other women online.

- **Platform:** Twitter
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2011

## Overview
The label itself is a straight Watergate riff, splicing the suffix '-gate' onto Weiner's conveniently unfortunate surname[1]. The joke writes itself in two directions at once, political cover-up and anatomical pun, which is why late-night hosts, headline writers and Urban Dictionary entries latched onto it inside a week. In the years after 2011 it became the default joke tag for any public figure caught accidentally broadcasting a sext, and reporters applied it to Weiner's own repeat scandals in 2013 and 2016[2].

The core image people associate with the term is the original tweeted photo, a bulge in grey boxer briefs[5], later paired with Weiner's long chain of denials, admissions and press-conference apologies. Jon Stewart turned the first week of coverage into running Daily Show material, including a segment where he openly questioned the picture's authenticity while disclosing that Weiner was a personal friend[5].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Weinergate?
Weinergate is the nickname for the May 2011 Twitter scandal in which Congressman Anthony Weiner's account publicly posted a photo of a bulging crotch in boxer briefs that was supposed to be a private direct message[5].

### Where did Weinergate come from?
It started on May 27th, 2011, when the photo went out from Weiner's Twitter account to a 21-year-old journalism student, and the Watergate-style label was in wide circulation within days[5].

### What does Weinergate mean?
The name splices Weiner's surname with the political '-gate' suffix inherited from Watergate, and the term is reused as shorthand for any sexting scandal involving a public official[1].

### How do you use Weinergate?
People typically use it when writing or joking about a politician caught sending a lewd message, treating it as a template name the way other '-gate' coinages work[2].

### Is Weinergate still popular?
The term is mostly a historical reference now, tied to the 2011 incident and the follow-up scandals that led to Weiner's 2017 federal prison sentence[6].

## References
1. [https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/14/republican-wins-house-race-in-new-york-seen-as-obama-rebuke/](<https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/14/republican-wins-house-race-in-new-york-seen-as-obama-rebuke/>)
2. [https://nypost.com/2016/08/28/anthony-weiner-sexted-busty-brunette-while-his-son-was-in-bed-with-him/](<https://nypost.com/2016/08/28/anthony-weiner-sexted-busty-brunette-while-his-son-was-in-bed-with-him/>)
3. [http://soupsoup.tumblr.com/post/6005285399/phone-data-on-weiners-previous-yfrog-images](<http://soupsoup.tumblr.com/post/6005285399/phone-data-on-weiners-previous-yfrog-images>)
4. [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/magazine/anthony-weiner-and-huma-abedins-post-scandal-playbook.html](<https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/magazine/anthony-weiner-and-huma-abedins-post-scandal-playbook.html>)
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/weinergate](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/weinergate>)
6. [http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/25/politics/anthony-weiner-sentencing/index.html](<http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/25/politics/anthony-weiner-sentencing/index.html>)
7. [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3790824/Anthony-Weiner-carried-months-long-online-sexual-relationship-troubled-15-year-old-girl-telling-hard-asking-dress-school-girl-outfits-pressing-engage-rape-fantasies.html](<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3790824/Anthony-Weiner-carried-months-long-online-sexual-relationship-troubled-15-year-old-girl-telling-hard-asking-dress-school-girl-outfits-pressing-engage-rape-fantasies.html>)
8. [https://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/06/anthony-weiner-resignation-sex-scandal-/1](<https://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/06/anthony-weiner-resignation-sex-scandal-/1>)
9. [http://thedirty.com/2013/07/exclusive-anthony-weiner-hasnt-changed-poor-huma-abedin-new-image-of-his-penis/](<http://thedirty.com/2013/07/exclusive-anthony-weiner-hasnt-changed-poor-huma-abedin-new-image-of-his-penis/>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/weinergate
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