What if the very forces that magnify a crisis in the public eye—namely round-the-clock news and social media—also hasten its disappearance from collective memory? In this paper, we weave together real-time market data, in-depth media analysis, and established crisis communication frameworks to reveal how rapid, high-stakes corporate scandals can flare up and then fade more quickly than ever before. Yet beneath the surface, reputational damage still lingers, placing a premium on strategic, transparent communication. By examining case studies across industries and crisis types, we uncover why today’s information overload might shorten a crisis’s most dramatic phase even as it requires organizations to work harder and longer to rebuild trust.