I’m glad Ashley highlighted the story of Greg Mortensen’s apparent fabrications and exaggerations. Let’s not forget that this is the same person that Nicholas Kristof said was an absolutely key player in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Check out this rather extreme overstatement:
So a lone Montanan staying at the cheapest guest houses has done more to advance U.S. interests in the region than the entire military and foreign policy apparatus of the Bush administration.
As you note, the truth matters, but as I argue in my Patheos column this week, Mortensen told precisely the kind of lies we want to hear.