Blog #2 by Rachel Stall

In the movie, The Shattered Glass, Stephen Glass there are two main events that bring up intense ethical issues. These two major ethical issues are fabrication and deception. This movie is about a journalist, Stephen Glass, that is a writer for The New Republic. Glass is caught fabricating his articles and making up stories.

 

The first major ethical issue that arises from Glass’ case is that his stories were fabricated. Fabrication is defined as making things up and passing them off as genuine. Glass lied about the convention, his notes, the people, they were all made up. The actual content was a lie in order to make the story better and further his career.

 

Another major ethical issue brought up in the case of Glass is deception. He not only made up stories, he lied to his co-workers, editor, but he also created schemes so that the fact checkers would not be able to catch on to his lies. Deception is defined as sending messages intended to “make others believe what we ourselves do not believe.” Glass not only deceived the audience but he also deceived his co-workers.

 

Stephen Glass lied, deceived, and fabricated his stories in order to make them more interesting. He did this with the intention of furthering his career. Glass is a great storyteller, but he has the wrong career. He should not be a storytelling journalist. Glass has showed that he does not have ethical values; he just wanted to be successful and have the best stories. None of Glass’ sources existed and his co-workers backed him up along with his editor. He ultimately admitted to fabricating his stories and deceiving those around him.

 

A major affect of lying in a newspaper story is that the readers in general question the creditability of not only the writer, but also the editor, and the paper. By breaking these ethical values it questions the media and makes readers feel like they can’t trust the media. According to Trust Me, I’m a Journalist: Shattered Glass and the Crisis of Trust in Liberal Journalism, by Brian McNair, “there must be trust in journalism’s reliability, accuracy and honesty. The first decade of the twenty first century has seen a number of scandals in the news media which have undermined public trust in journalism, particularly the esteemed, ‘quality’ journalism of leading media organizations such as the BBC, the New York Times and the New Republic.” McNair is suggesting that without honesty in journalism then quality diminishes. As a result of these scandals readers questions the quality of the content being presented to them. Readers are loosing trust in the quality of news as a result of fabricated stories.

 

According to, Journalism and Deception: The Other Side of a Two-Faced Coin, by David Abrahamson, Abrahamson suggests that the other part of the story isn’t being told in journalism because of “what might be called the Myth of Balance is, I would argue, a self-serving excuse to avoid seeking the truth. Relying on a simplistic “A said, B” said formula provides very little insight into who is telling the truth.” According to Abrahamson, laziness, loss of insider access, and competitiveness with the new technologies are also to blame for deception in journalism.

 

In the Stephen Glass scandal, once the claims were made about fabrication in the story, The New Republic fact checked and were able to find fabrications in almost all of Glass’ stories. The New Republic then issued an apology letter to the readers of the paper. The main message in that can be taken out from Glass’ scandal is that honesty is the best policy. Also that if you are a journalist and your stories are not truthful or accurate then you will eventually be exposed. As a result your career and creditability will diminish.

 

 

Possible solutions to solving any issues like this would be just be putting more emphasis on fact checking, having the editor look over notes before submitting any articles, and also having more then one journalist cover an event or story. For example, in Glass’ story he covered a convention that was made up if he has someone else from the paper there it might not have happened. Another way to prevent this situation would be, as the editor, asking for pictures, documentation, notes, as well as voice recordings.

 

 

 

McNair, Brian. “Trust Me, I’m A Journalist: Shattered Glass And The Crisis Of Trust In Liberal Journalism.” Conference Papers — International Communication Association (2009): 1.Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.

 

Abrahamson, David. “Journalism And Deception: The Other Side Of A Two-Faced Coin.” Journal Of Magazine & New Media Research 13.1 (2012): 1-4. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.

 

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