The TV show “Mad Men” takes place in 1960 in a Madison Avenue advertising agency. The agency’s superstar, Don Draper, stole the identity of a lieutenant he served with in the Korean War years before. “Draper” has created a new personal history, and he pretty much gets away with it.

In 2007, this secrecy would be nearly impossible. A Google search of Don Draper’s image would reveal the lie. Compared with 1960, it’s much harder now for public figures (and private ones) to lie, exaggerate, hedge, fudge or overstate the truth. The Internet has a lot to do with this reality, as do open-records laws and the reporters and other citizens who use those records.

This 2007 reality hasn’t hit home for some folks, however. Some recent examples:

“USA Today recently blew the whistle on Lynn Brewer, a former Enron employee, who makes a living talking about the ethics she learned while a whistleblower at Enron. Her account is highly exaggerated, however, according to USA Today. Brewer is “an astute self-promoter who parlayed an undistinguished 32-month stint as an Enron employee into a lucrative career in the corporate ethics industry.”

“On Oct. 1, the arrest of 77 “violent gang members and associates” garnered intense media coverage and renewed worries that Spokane is turning into a miniature Los Angeles. But S-R reporter Jody Lawrence-Turner discovered through records requests and interviews that the reality was much different. Only 35 were booked into jail and some of them had no ties to gangs.

“A TV ad in favor of Washington’s Referendum 67 features a young woman whose firefighter father died, she believes, because an insurance company delayed his claims. The veracity of the ad is being dissected and debated by newspapers, bloggers and people on both sides of the issue. What exactly happened is still unclear, but it is clear campaign ads are no longer taken at face value – no matter how compelling.

“More sexually explicit e-mails generated by employees of Kootenai County’s prosecutor’s office were released recently. The Spokesman-Review sued to obtain them, and a judge determined the e-mails were of public interest.

In “Mad Men,” John F. Kennedy has just been elected president. In real life, Kennedy got away with womanizing because journalists then were in a see-the-kiss-but-don’t-tell mode. In this era, Kennedy’s infidelities would be blogged before the first primary.

If you’re in public life, assume everything you do on the job might eventually come to light. Understand that the public has a right to see almost all your e-mails. And try not to lie, exaggerate, hedge, fudge or overstate the truth, especially in campaign ads.