AA is notoriously bad about keeping passengers updated about delays and departure times -- most people here would likely agree. That said, framing it as "lying" and calling members of this forum "apologists" up front isn't really the most civil way to kick off a thread.

If I had to guess, I'd say it's not malicious lying so much as spineless hedging -- AA can, and does, frequently swap in aircraft from other flights at literally the last minute. Several times I've seen that the inbound aircraft for my flight is delayed an hour, think "no way I'm leaving on time," and next thing I know they've announced a gate change and we're indeed leaving exactly as scheduled using a different aircraft. However, once AA's put a delay up on the big board, they're pretty much committed, so I suspect they like to keep all their options open as long as possible. Good for their ops department, but incredibly frustrating for the customer.