The Story of Deceit
When I was younger
I was told over and over again that being Deceitful will get you nowhere and
eventually it will catch up to you. Even though this is true, it takes people a
while to witness the harmful effects of Deceit. For some people being Deceitful
has become part of their everyday life and they do not even realize that they
are lying. These types of people are known as compulsive liars. However, not
all lies are bad and in fact in certain situations it's better to lie. We see
today, especially with the media, that being deceitful is portrayed as a horrible
thing. However, so many average and even famous people lie because they think
they can get away with. When the media finds out they make it a point to make
it a big deal. Three examples of this are Bill Clinton, Sean Peyton, and
Anthony Weiner.
Bill Clinton was
the 42nd President of the United States of America. He was the third youngest
president in history. He was a beloved President after his first term, having
the highest approval ratings since World War II. This was helped by an economic
boom and years of peace. However in his 2nd term he wasn't as popular. The
reason for this was the big sex scandal that surrounded his presidency known as
the Lewinsky scandal. Monica Lewinsky was a White House intern that had a
sexual relationship with the President Clinton. This Affair was blown up in the
media because it involved the leader of our nation. When asked about these
allegations he completely denied them. This was probably because he was scared
of the consequences of the affair and thought that he would not get caught.
After they both deny this affair, recorded tapes of a conversation appeared
confirming the allegations. After this evidence was brought forward, the people
wanted to impeach Clinton for being deceitful and having this secret sex
affair. Even though Clinton was seen as a favorable president in his first
term, his overall presidency was tainted because of this scandal.
Another example of
deceit within the media is with the head coach of the New Orleans head coach,
Sean Peyton. Within the past few years there was a scandal surrounding a NFL
team known as bounty gate. Bounty Gate was when the defensive coach of New
Orleans paid his players money in order to injure players on the opposing team.
There was strong evidence against the team that they intentionally injured two
high profile quarter backs in the playoffs. Not only that, when they started
this program the Saints won the championship. This is obviously seen as
horrific act and even worse the head coach did nothing about it. There was
question to whether Sean Peyton was actually a participant of this program.
However, when the media got hold of this story it did not matter. They
portrayed Sean Peyton as a bad person for not reporting this program to the
NFL. The media felt that he is the head coach and he is involved with everything
that the team does. By not coming forward, the media felt that he was being
deceitful and tried to cover it up.
A famous example
of trickery and deceit is the Anthony Wiener case which took place about three
years ago. He famously exchanged revealing pictures of himself with a female mistress
of his in an apparent extramarital affair. When the news came out of the
allegations of the affair, it became widespread in the media. He repeatedly
denied the accusations and went to great lengths to try and deceive press
reporters and other members of the media who were trying to uncover the
potential scandal. The truth, however, ultimately caught up to him, as new
details of the affair continued to come out, and the reality became undeniable
for Weiner. He eventually admitted to exchanging inappropriate photos with his
female companion and his entire political career was over in a heartbeat. He
was forced to resign from his political post and apologize publicly to his
family, friends, and in essence, the entire mass media.
Being deceitful
gets you nowhere and often hurts your reputation. In the examples I have given
the lives of these people were tainted just because they didn't come forward
and tell the truth. Obviously because these men are in the
"spotlight", the media makes it a bigger deal then it really is.
However, I think the media does a good job in portraying deceit and the harmful
effects.
Works Cited
( http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1721111_1721210-1721114,00.hm1>
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