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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Do all Hawaiians make up girlfriends?

by Jack Cashill 

One story is currently consuming the American media, and not just the sports media. That story, of course, is whether Notre Dame All-American linebacker Manti Te’o conspired to fabricate his seemingly tragic relationship with imaginary girlfriend Lennay Kekua or whether he is a victim of a cruel hoax.
Much is at stake – or so we are told. If Te’o proves to be a participant, NFL scouts will question his character and downgrade his stock in the upcoming NFL draft. For those who care, Deadspin has some excellent reporting on this story, better reporting in fact than anyone in the major media has done on that other Hawaiian fabricator of girl friends, President Barack Obama.
Although I and others in the blogosphere had made the case early on that the girlfriends Obama wrote about in his memoir “Dreams from My Father” were not real, the major media ran from the story.
That changed somewhat in May 2012 when Vanity Fair ran an excerpt of David Maraniss’ forthcoming biography, “Barack Obama: The Story.” Dylan Byers of Politico extracted the heart of that excerpt in an article titled, “Obama: ‘New York girlfriend’ was composite.”
True, the character of a president is not as critical as the character of a Notre Dame linebacker. Still, in another era, one would have expected the media to dive into this story. They surely would have had the president been George Bush. Read More:

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