Stop Pretending That You’re Above a Good Fake Dead Girlfriend Gossip Story

As the Manti Te'o controversy has been fiercely raging for the last several weeks, the reactions in the comments sections of online media outlets is pretty predictable: suddenly everyone is a hardcore PBS news junkie, outraged that CNN and USA Today isn’t talking about the problem of Gerrymandering in Jordan or Sequestration, as if those story are being pushed off the airwaves by Te’o’s fake girlfriend.


The T’eo story is not just entertaining for all of its bizarre twist and turns, but it is part of the American ethos on fairness. While our history tells a different story, our popular culture has long been obsessed with the idea that lying is wrong, that it is unfair if anyone benefits from cheating. That’s why the T’eo story is dominating the news — we don’t want this myth to be undone.

Te'o's faux pas is not that he made-up a girl friend or grossly exaggerated the relationship — who hasn’t done that at one point in their life? — but that he allegedly did it to help generate sympathy to raise his national profile, which among many things, would boost his chances of winning the Heisman Trophy.


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