A lesson of unethical journalism can be found in the story of Stephen Glass, a reporter who worked the the Washington D.C. Magazine The New Republic. Glass’s story follows the spiral of lies he told in 27 of his stories by falsifying information in order to become a renowned journalist. By watching the movie that follows his story, Shattered Glass, aspiring journalists can learn many ethical issues faced by journalists. One ethical issue that stands out is Glass’s lying risking the reputation of his employer, The New Republic. Another large ethical issue that stands out to me is Glass’s clear loyalty to himself, and quite clearly only himself.
When Stephen Glass fabricated and made up many stories, he did not take into account the risk of harming the reputation of The New Republic. This magazine at the time was regarded as one of the most prestigious ones in the Washington D.C area, and Glass single handedly put their reputation on the line. With one reporter fabricating stories and telling lies, that leads to a further investigation for the whole magazine. This displays his selfishness, tying into the idea that his loyalty lies in himself.
While Glass “wanted every story to be a home run” (Shapiro, 263) he did not think about the risk that he was putting on his company. He turned in 27 false stories under two separate bosses, which lead to an investigation of a company that, besides Glass, was doing no wrong to begin with.
Glass was writing about fictional people that did not exist in order for himself to become a more successful journalist. His lies built one on top of the other. A direct quote from him, Glass stated “…Much of the time I wrote fictional stories about fictional people at fictional times doing fictional things.” (Leung) He lied to “hundreds of thousands of readers” (Leung), to please them, all while once again caring about himself.
In addition to this, Glass wrote a novel about his lies following the revelation of his fabrication and made up stories and characters. He wrote a novel so people still became more aware of him, and he continued to make money off of his work of fiction. Yes, it is an interesting topic to read about, but he was continuing to make money off of the most unethical thing a journalist can do. He used his novel to seek pity from readers about his mistakes, as the story describes the main character (Stephen Glass) as someone who “longs to be admired and loved; he cheats to avoid rejection.” (Shapiro, 262)
While someone like Glass may have had personal issues which led him to do the things he did, his actions were unarguably unethical and uncalled for by any journalistic standards. Risking your whole company’s business, and then selling your lies in a novel to bring in more revenue for yourself are two things that that a journalist should not seek to do.
Had I been in the position of dealing with Stephen Glass, I most definitely would have fired him and write an apology, which The New Republic did. However, in an industry like this, where honesty is the strongest policy, companies need to further investigate their stories before they go to print, which is a way to have avoided and solved this situation.
The story of Stephen Glass, along with the stories of Jayson Blair and similar journalists, prove that lying is not the best policy. It may get you to the top quickly, but the writer will fall down a lot quicker than they climbed up. Once lies come out, it is impossible to clear your record. Stephen Glass’s story proves that these lies coming out are almost always inevitable, further proving that a lie or fabrication is never the right direction to go in.
References:
Shapiro, I. (2006). Why They Lie: Probing the Explanations for Journalistic Cheating. Canadian Journal of Communication, 31, 261-266.
Leung, R. (2009). Stephen Glass: I lied for esteem. CBS News.