The Lying Liar: One More on Micah Wright
Today, WaPo has an article on Wright's fraudulent history.
bq. Wright, it turns out, is a liar. He never served in the military -- and confessed that last week to his publisher, Seven Stories Press, after we insisted on evidence of his service. Pursuing a tip from real Rangers who'd never heard of Wright, we filed three Freedom of Information Act requests with separate Army commands -- and last month finally confirmed that Wright never served.
Now, I really need that person to come through with the text file of Wright's non-historically revised version his confessional/apology, where he says that the media is to blame for spreading his lies because they didn't question his story.
Turns out they did. And thanks to some Rangers and the Freedom of Information Act, Wright's hand was forced. Don't believe for a second that his confessional had anything at all to do with remorse. It had to do with a train wreck of truth barrelling down on him.
And what of WWII vet Kurt Vonnegut, who wrote the forward to Wright's latest book?
I still like what he did. He's a liar, but I still like his pictures.
Yep, he's a good artist whose career will be halted, if not ruined, by a giant lie.
If ever there were a perfect moment to quote the "Oh, what a tangled web we weave" line, this would be it. Which, by the way, is not a Shakespeare quote.
And what have we learned from this whole sordid affair, kids? We've learned that things like Google caches exist, and that people who are onto your little schemes will save screen shots and text files of everything you do and that, in a panic, blocking your site from the Wayback Machine is no substitute for hard copies and said screenshots.
Therein lies the proof that Wright had no intention of confessing anything until the truth closed in on him- the changing of his words, the deleting of certain paragraphs, the disappearing pages and the blocking of said pages being archived all lead one to the conclusion that the man was trying to cover his trail of deceit.
A man who was truly confessing to a lie such as that, on the basis that the lie was weighing heavily on him what with the deaths of so many soldiers and all, would not have been covering his tracks like a drug kingpin being chased down by the feds. I mean, if you are going to confess to being a drug dealer, why hide the evidence of the meth lab in your basement?
So not only is Wright a damn liar, he is even trying to lie when he confesses to being a liar.
Seek help, Wright. Fast.
Update: Greyhawk has something to say.
Comments
He won't seek help because he has not done anything wrong in the eyes of his fans(see Bill Clinton for recent case study).These people are all about getting away with things that they would crucify their opponents over.
Posted by: mbruce | May 2, 2004 07:56 AM
You know, here's my thing: I REALLY hate calling someone a liar. It's a nasty thing to say. If you aren't willing to prove, on demand, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that someone is lying, you shouldn't say it. Is it possible they were just misunderstood? That they just misspoke? That they would issue a retraction or apology if given a chance? Then don't whip out with "liar" unless you can damn well prove it.
Why? Because it cheapens the term when someone who actually is a liar is exposed. It makes it too easy for people to use weasely "everybody lies" rhetoric.
No, everybody doesn't lie. Not like this.
Posted by: Dean Esmay | May 2, 2004 08:16 AM
Listen -
Vonnegut - (God love 'im, I still like his books!) is an old school (typewriter) guy, and doesn't realize each of those pictures represents about 5 minutes of effort with a mouse and a bit of software.
"Foma" he should say. "All a pack of Foma"
Posted by: Greyhawk | May 2, 2004 09:09 AM
Here's a clip from the interview he did when his military-suprhero comic (it's extra realistic because he was a ranger you know), StormWatch: Team Achilles, was cancelled:
____________
http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=b d17422e444b60041a2f435a6bbf156e&threadid=11787&highlight=stormwatch
'MW: Yeah... there were a lot of things. I was slowly replacing everyone on Team Achilles with Superhumans, so that by issue #36 Santini would look around and say "hey... I'm the only human being here!" I liked the idea of the change being so gradual that he didn't notice it until it was a done deal... it was my literary critique of the comic book marketplace in a way and the way that superhero books have pushed everything else out of the direct market. I was also going to play with Giant some more... in issue #21 - out today! run forth and buy it! - we see Santini having to make nice with Giant who has been a plague on the team since issue #2. Recently we had Giant "re-brand" himself as "The Hallibastard," a corporate-sponsored superhero who works for Hallibusker Oil. We had some good stories coming up with Hallibastard invading a Middle Eastern country for his bosses and getting really angry when the inhabitants greeted him with Islamist Supervillains and machine-gun fire instead of honey & flowers.
Eventually the plan was to make Giant see the error of his ways and rename himself Born Again, the first really self-righteous uptight Baptist Superhero. Giant was my ongoing commentary on the concept of the Superhero and I was going to just keep having him come up against StormWatch again and again.'
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Wow. "Hallibastard." You don't see subtlety like that every day.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 2, 2004 10:36 AM
A few questions related to his publishers:
1. are they going to demand that Micah give back any advances/royalties he earned by lying about his background to market the book?
2. I forsee a breach of contract suit coming soon to a court near Micah. I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that the fact he outed himself as a liar might actually mean that he screwed with the marketing of said books---and his contractual obligations toward said marketing---and put the publisher in financial jeopardy. After all, Micah said in his "apology" that the publisher loved the fact he was a vet and wanted to play on that angle. Sounds great, huh? You should have kept your big mouth shut! So we could reap the financial rewards! I can see it happening, though.
Any lawyers out there with a take on this one?
Posted by: Kathy | May 2, 2004 01:30 PM
I second what Dean said. I know that Kevin Parrott has been sitting on this for almost a year, ever since Wright threw the "Ranger" thing in his face for criticizing his dumb posters. He suspected Wright was full of shit about his background, and a lot of others did too, but there was no solid proof. So he didn't go public with his suspicions. If the Post hadn't pursued it, Wright would be spending his weekend typing up some more "You don't know what it's like in the shit, man!" e-mails instead of sweating through his shirt and trying to cover his tracks even more. Anyway, there are liars and then there are liars.
Posted by: Jim Treacher | May 2, 2004 03:03 PM
Jim,
I have to take exception with your last sentence... I think what Dean is saying is that the way the terms lying and liar are being thrown around allows for a moral equivalency that is debases the seriousness of real lying. As I posted both here and at Dean's in the past, the Service Academies (and other schools and probably ROTC) take the honor concept very seriously. Like Dean says, calling someone a liar should be a VERY serious charge and not used as a rhetorical device to describe someone who might have misspoke or have been misinterpreted. For example:
I don't think Kerry is a liar.
I don't think Gore was a liar.
I DO think Clinton was a liar.
Posted by: JFH | May 2, 2004 04:06 PM
"I think what Dean is saying is that the way the terms lying and liar are being thrown around allows for a moral equivalency that debases the seriousness of real lying."
That's what I'm saying too. Or trying to, at least.
Posted by: Jim Treacher | May 2, 2004 05:40 PM
JFH and Treach don't really disagree with each other I think. ;-)
Posted by: Dean Esmay | May 2, 2004 05:47 PM
Shit, Dean! They're channelling us!
Posted by: J. A, Eddy | May 2, 2004 07:13 PM