ABSTRACT
In his new book, Leading with My Chin, Jay Leno tells a mildly embarrassing story about himself on the old Dinah Shore television show. The only problem with the incident is that it did not happen to Leno. It happened to another comedian, Jeff Altman. Leno told Josef Adalian of the New York Post last week that he liked the story so much he paid Altman a thousand dollars for the right to publish the tale as his own. That is certainly too strong a word for what Leno did, and at any rate, a great deal of lying can safely be assumed to be a constant in human history. Leno's stretching of the truth is a minor matter, but there is something fitting about it as a reflection of the current cultural moment. But the best antidote is to care about the truth more than feelings or group rights, and to teach respect for truth in the schools.
