Monti Teo

Monti Teo is the Notre Dame linebacker who had an imaginary girlfriend.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifest...565_story.html

Needless to say, the sports-talk radio hosts and ESPN talking heads are outraged -- and split as to whether Teo was the victim or perpetrator of the hoax.

I can see why (ostensible) journalists are outraged at having been duped, but why should we the public care? If college kids want to make up imaginary girlfriends, so much the better, I say. At least they won't get pregnant. "Show me a man who don't lie, and I'll show you a man who ain't got much to say," said Mark Twain.

"What did Teo hope to gain?" intone the outraged talking heads. I can see some college kids sitting around their dorm room and making up an imaginary girlfriend just for the fun of putting something over on the public. Who, they might think, is harmed by it? Besides, it's a sort of fictional endeavor those us interested in literature should encourage.

I'll grant that the actual story (the girlfriend died of leukemia) is a bit too "Love Story" for my tastes, but it seems that most people are outraged by the concept rather than the specifics.

I don't think encouraging hoaxes on either a large or small scale (Orson Welles notwithstanding) or encouraging lying is ethical. Having said that, I also don't really see the point of all the outrage, which only encourages the worst behavior in people.