Four young men got drunk, vandalized a restroom and lied. They concocted a tale about getting robbed at gunpoint, God knows why.

This would typically warrant a blurb in a small-town newspaper, along with other police blotter items about vandals and drunks.

Add celebrity status, sprinkle in sportswriters bored with covering games, and voila: A follow-the-leader wave of ditzy, self-righteous media will make drunken buffoonery the story of the year.

The world knows swimmer Ryan Lochte and three fellow athletes drank too much, broke a bathroom door and lied. It's an embarrassment, given the status of the suspects, but far from a stop-the-presses crisis.

"Ryan Lochte is a moron," declares a headline in Men's Journal.

We're told Lochte sullied the Olympics and violated Rio.

By feigning disproportional outrage, media types tell the audience they don't tolerate lies. The more outrage they express, the more they distance themselves from liars.

Maybe if journalists protest this lie enough, they can reverse that American Press Institute survey from April. It found 6 percent of Americans have "a great deal of confidence" in media telling the truth.

Pundits want us to see this story as more than drunks who trashed a bathroom and lied. This story can represent a variety of popular grievances about American society.

"The Ugly American," shouts the cover of the New York Post, promoting an article that ponders whether athletes from Kazakhstan, Kenya or Kuala Lampur would lie. Of course not. Only privileged Americans would do this.

More esteemed news outlets, which typically belittle the Post, were quick to extol the headline and analysis.

Another emerging theme asserts Lochte and friends get a pass because they are white. Lochte is Latino, but race experts tell us the scrutiny would be more intense if he or the others had dark skin.

"Even if he is technically Latino, he appears to be white and so the world treats him as such," wrote Cristina Arreola, books editor at Bustle magazine.

A 1,342-word article for National Public Radio's "Code Switch" titled "Smart Thoughts on Ryan Lochte And White Privilege" quotes an assortment of journalists suggesting the men have been excused because of race.

"Lochte is a straight, white man, who has long been beloved for his pretty face, doofy personality and charmingly slow demeanor during interviews," wrote Huffington Post editor Emma Gray.

Goodness. We wonder what might happen if someone with real power told a lie, similar to Lochte's held-at-gunpoint tale. What if:

Lie: "I remember landing under sniper fire . we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." — Hillary Clinton, March 17, 2008.

Truth: "Photographs and video of the arrival ceremony, combined with contemporaneous news reports, tell a very different story. Four Pinocchios." — Washington Post, March 21, 2008.

Imagine if the president of the United States lied about something important, involving big money and American lives.

Lie: "We do not pay ransom for hostages." — President Barack Obama, Aug. 4, 2016

Truth: "A $400 million cash payment to Iran seven months ago was contingent on the release of a group of American prisoners." — The New York Times, Aug. 18, 2016.

Imagine a lie that helped Americans choose a president based on a false promise.

Lie: "Read my lips: No new taxes." — George H.W. Bush, 1988 campaign.

Truth: Bush increased taxes two years later.

Lies are blamed as rationale for wars in Vietnam and Iraq, which took hundreds of thousands of lives.

Our culture long ago made peace with liars in high places, who make life-and-death decisions and chart the course of our future. Americans no longer trust the media to hold them accountable.

Journalists cannot compensate for critically low credibility by feigning moral outrage over athletes who drank and got stupid. Put this in perspective and get back to work.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE