abstract noun

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>

<'http:/lurryw.n)dailvnews.comisportslfootbalVtagliabue-tosses-bountygate-stxoensions-article-l . 1 2 177i9 >

< htto:i/wwr.cbsspoorts.com/nfl/blog/jason-la-canforai21333l79/the-nfl-today-bountygate-settlement-offer-reiected-bv-nflDa>

< http://www.hu{finstonpost.coml20l I /06/06/anthony-*'einer-twitter-new-photos-n-87l8l7.htrn>

< http://articles.cnn.com/201 I -06-l2ipolitics/weiner.scandal.timeline_l_conservative-blogger-lewd-photo-twitter-account?-s=PM:POLITICS >