cover story
Fabricated alibi explanation
A cover story is a false explanation designed to conceal the truth.
Spies use cover stories to explain their presence; someone hiding an affair invents a cover story for their spouse.
The term also means the main article featured on a magazine's cover: The scandal made the cover story of Time.
Defense of location
- pretextFabricated motive concealing truth
- fabricationDeliberately untrue statement
- ruseDeliberate act of deception
- smokescreenConcealment through misdirection
facade · front · charade · falsehood · subterfuge · disinformation · hoax · sham
Distinguishing quality or element
- headlineNews article title
- articleWritten piece or grammatical word
- scoopFirst-reported story
- exclusiveLimited to one group
expose · profile · magazine · byline · correspondent · dateline · newsroom · editorial
Covert information gatherer
- agentOne who acts independently
- operativeCovert field agent
- handlerOne who manages something
- intelligenceMental ability, cognitive capacity
CIA · MI6 · legend · identity · infiltration · safe house · double agent · tradecraft
alibi
Defense of location
- pretextFabricated motive concealing truth
- fabricationDeliberately untrue statement
- ruseDeliberate act of deception
smokescreen · facade · front · charade · falsehood · subterfuge · disinformation · hoax · sham · guise
feature
Distinguishing quality or element
exclusive · expose · profile · magazine · byline · correspondent · dateline · newsroom · editorial · reportage
spy
Covert information gatherer
intelligence · CIA · MI6 · legend · identity · infiltration · safe house · double agent · tradecraft · defector
camouflage
Concealment through visual blending
cloak · screen · shield · hide · obscure · shroud · secrecy · classified · covert · clandestine
- print mediaheadline, magazine, articles, news, byline
- secrecysecrecy, secret, secrets, confidential, classified
- excusesexcuse, not my fault, overslept, alibi, excuses
- hidden identitiesanonymous, anonymity, pseudonym, alias, incognito
- magazine sectionseditorials, features, ads, classifieds, comics
- espionagespy, spies, double agent, double agents, spying
cover storyconfession
Admission of wrongdoing
exposé · admission · revelation · disclosure · full disclosure
cover, story, history, recover, uncover, covering, covered, stories, discovery