Essay One: Cheating Gains Acceptance into the Mainstream
In ôCheating Gains Acceptance into the Mainstream,ö Leonard Pitts, Jr. (2004) argues in The Miami Herald that cheating is gaining acceptance among the American public. From music and sports to education Pitts provides a number of examples to prove his claim.
Pitts begins his example with the pop music example of the Milli Vanilli incident that occurred after the release of the top selling 1989 CD ôGirl, You Know ItÆs True.ö Pitts explains how the two lead vocalists were lip-synching to other artists and exposed as complete fakes. Though the negative media exposure from this incident ruined the duoÆs reputation, according to Pitts (Para 9) fans still wrote letters that condoned their actions saying ôWe donÆt care if a performance was fake, so long as it was flawless.ö Pitts uses such examples to show the rising acceptance of cheating in American society.
Professional baseball is also hauled on the carpet as an example of the growing acceptance of cheating in American society. Baseball players have been exposed for using performance-enhancing drugs, a fact of which many players and league owners were aware, and the fans still accept baseball players and admire them for their achievement. Another cheating incident Pitts reveals includes a group of students in a Kansas high school who were punished by their teacher for cheating on a major assignment. When the teacher gave FÆs to the cheating students, she faced a maelstrom of protest from their parents, including threatening late-night phone calls. In the wake of the conflict, the school ordered the teacher to revoke her mark of ôFö for the cheating students. One of the alleged cheaters remarked on CBS News, ôIt probably sounds twisted, but I would say that in this day and age, cheating is almost not wrongö (Pitts, Para 21). Pitts (Para 21) maintains in response, ôIs that really a singer or is it jus...