I mean, fine, maybe they had some desktops that they had to rip up too. But is it really that hard to only tell the actual truth? Is the temptation to embellish the story that strong, that you have to grab some other parts to set next to your laptop for the picture? Parts which, I hasten to note, probably would not even physically fit inside the laptop?

Frankly, small lies like this say much more about one’s character than a big, important, damaging lie. You can rationalize a big lie and still try to be an honest person the rest of the time. When you lie about little things, even when it doesn’t really help you, it just means you have a callous disregard for the truth.

News organizations should not be in the business of having a callous disregard for the truth.