David Manning Liars of the Month

April 2008

Moises Alou

Or perhaps the title this month should be "Tardy and Incompetent Well-Intentioned Liar of the Month."

You see, way back in 2003, the Chicago Cubs appeared to be on their way to the World Series, and perhaps even to a World Championship that has now eluded the unlucky franchise for a full century. But just as victory seemed within the team's grasp, and it was poised to triumph in what would have been the final game of the National League play-offs against the Florida Marlins, an inattentive Cubs fan wearing headphones managed to get in the way of a foul pop-fly that Cubs left-fielder Moises Alou was preparing to catch. The out wasn't made, the floodgates opened, and a seemingly sure Cubs victory slipped away, and with it the play-off and dreams of World Series glory. The fan, Steve Bartman, was pilloried by the media and the community. Eventually, he had to move out of Chicago, as his name entered Cubs lore as a villain for the ages.

Now comes Alou, five years later and playing for the Mets, announcing to the world that the poor guy got a bad rap. "Everywhere I play, even now, people still yell, 'Bartman! Bartman!' I feel really bad for the kid," Alou told Associated Press columnist Jim Litke. "You know what the funny thing is? I wouldn't have caught it, anyway."

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March 2008

Lauren Clari

"The Moment of Truth" is the latest of a long series of despicable Fox reality shows that are based on the premise that all human beings have a price for which they will sell their principles, honor and dignity, and the related assumption that millions of American will want to watch them do so. A mind-numbingly slow-motion version of the game "Truth or Dare," "The Moment of Truth" asks venal contestants embarrassing questions as America and their loved ones look on. A prior session with a lie detector has determined (well, sort of: lie detectors are not very reliable) what the "true" answers are, and as long as the contestants keep answering honestly ("Yes, I belong to Al Qaeda"…"Yes, I once ate a puppy"… "Yes, I believe Roger Clemens never took steroids"…) he or she keeps winning money. One lie, however (at least according to the lie detector) and the winnings vanish.

Lauren Clari was a contestant who was obviously willing to admit to anything and hurt anybody for money

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Senator Hillary Clinton

The raging question appears to be whether Senator Clinton was lying through her teeth when, during a campaign appearance, she described traveling to Bosnia as First Lady and flying through “sniper fire,” then having to run from the plane to cover, head down, rather than receiving a ceremonial greeting upon landing. CBS produced news footage of the event, which showed no hint of sniper fire or imminent danger. Far from ducking and running, Mrs. Clinton got off the plane to a fond and unhurried greeting featuring a little girl reading a poem.

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Liars from other months

David Manning was an imaginary movie reviewer that Sony quoted when one of its movies was so lousy no real movie reviewer would praise it. When this long-running public fraud was brought to Sony's attention, the company's response was, in effect, "So who believes movie reviews?" Thus Sony's phony critic and the company's cynical defense of him stand for the dubious proposition that as long as your self-serving lie is in a trivial arena (usually entertainment) where dishonesty and misrepresentation are commonplace, or is a lie that nobody believes, it isn't reprehensible.

The fact is that these casual, obvious or trivial lies and the liars who spread them (almost always for profit) further degrade the value of honesty in American society, and pave the way for more destructive lies and liars waiting in the wings. All public deception is harmful, so The Ethics Scoreboard regularly recognizes The David Manning Liars of the Month, and urges the public to make them come clean…

February 2008:Bill Clinton

January 2008: Mike Huckabee

2007 Liars

December 2007: Clinton Pollster Mark Penn

November 2007:
Former President Bill Clinton;
Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees

October 2007: Tom Anderson

September 2007: New York Times

August 2007: Lindsay Lohan

July 2007: Gary Sheffield

June 2007: Paris Hilton; Laura Albert

May 2007: John Edwards ;
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson

April 2007: President Bush; Mitt Romney