For the week of May 21 - 27, 2003

Why isn’t reality
good enough?

Commentary by PAT MURPHY

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Only psychiatrists with deep understandings of twisted psyches can possibly explain the behavior of the newspaper publisher who wasn’t satisfied with just being what one politician called "the most powerful man in the state"—and reinvented himself as a war hero.

First claiming to be an Air Force second lieutenant, he gradually promoted himself over the years to full colonel while moving from town to town, often wearing a spectacular Air Force dress uniform to social bashes with rows of decoration ribbons, boasting of derring-do aerial exploits in the Korean and Vietnam wars, and even hosting a fighter "aces" conference in Phoenix.

He suckered everyone—until a politician discovered the U.S. military had no record of him serving a single day in any armed service.

I not only worked for this Phoenix publisher, but succeeded him. Evidence thereafter of just how far he carried his deception was not only humiliating, but a tribute to seduction of the gullible—including his son-in-law, a major in the Air Force.

He’s but one of America’s "fabricators," the delicate euphemism for liars.

The latest notorious example is New York Times reporter Jayson Blair who fabricated a string of stories. Another media con man, Stephen Glass, invented people, places and events while a star at The New Republic magazine.

Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke had to return her Pulitzer Prize in the 1980s after her fictional accounts about a drug-addicted baby was exposed. Popular Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle was sacked after editors found he created non-existent sources.

Even newspaper circulation executives have been caught spiking circulation numbers to impress their bosses.

But liars aren’t confined to media. A football coach hired by Notre Dame fudged his professional resume. A Vietnam vet in Dallas has made a career out of exposing phony "vets."

A disgruntled ex-wife in Phoenix exposed a man who’d fraudulently posed for years as a daring CIA pilot—and none too soon: he was about to be honored by the Air Force at a formal dinner for his career.

In business, CEOs have lied about profits, aided by complicit auditors. A few politicians making false claims about military service have paid by losing office.

No one has explained satisfactorily why men—especially men—with substantial achievements are driven to embellish their lives with self-destructive lies. Were they so barren of self-esteem they needed fiction to provide a sense of superiority over others?

A more depressing commentary is the sequel to these episodes of deceit: Many "fabricators" become celebrities, cashing in on notoriety with books, films or higher-paying new jobs. The disgraced Times reporter Blair is negotiating a seven-figure book deal about his shabby conduct. Barnicle is an MSNBC commentator and Glass has a new novel.

Just wait until indicted executives who fleeced employees and shareholders by lying about profits show up for criminal trials and take the oath.

They’ll swear to tell the truth, the whole truth "so help me God."

Sure.

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.