Throughout the movie Shattered Glass Stephen Glass commits various journalistically unethical acts. One main ethical message in the movie is to never fabricate an acclaimed non-fiction article; a rule Stephen Glass did not follow. Glass made many accusations in his articles under false pretenses. A message that also really stands out from Glass’s story is how a journalist should always be honest with their editor, colleagues and, most importantly, their audience.
As a viewer nears the end of Shattered Glass, they learn that almost all articles written by Stephen Glass were fabricated. Before the world learned about Glass’s dishonesty, he was a well-known, critically acclaimed writer. Glass most likely fabricated most of his stories because the false stories were 10 times more interesting than the true stories. Glass came to fame by “supposedly” uncovering secrets and writing great articles about them. They were greatly written stories but they weren’t real and Glass lost all journalistic dignity as soon as he wrote his first false story. Ethically, Stephen Glass chose to risk losing the trust of his readers and the accreditation of his work.
As we learned in class, a journalist should never deceive their editor, colleagues or audience. Stephen Glass deceived all three by choosing to fabricate his stories and he broke a major ethical rule in journalism. Even after Glass is caught, he continues to lie to his editor. I think he does this because he doesn’t want to come to terms with the fact that what he’s done is ethically wrong and he has most likely ruined his career. This point in the movie is a great example of what can happen to a journalist when they start to deceive those around them and how it can take a large negative affect on one’s career.
Both of Stephen Glass’s ethical violations could have been avoided. If Glass wanted his articles to be newsworthy and interesting he should have thought more outside the box. When struggling with what to write, I recommend a journalist get creative and think outside the box. Fabricating a story just because a journalist can’t find an interesting topic isn’t good, especially when their labeling it as non-fiction. The only advice that can be given about the second ethical issue is for a journalist to be honest with their editor, colleagues and audience; they’re who make the journalists career. Without the trust of the journalist’s employer and audience, they just have words on a paper that no one will care to read.
As we talked about widely in class, the Jayson Blair case is similar to Glass’s. The New York Times writer plagiarized and fabricated his stories resulting in the demise of his career. Norman P. Lewis discussed the reoccurrence of unethical journalism and Jayson Blair in the Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly. “Plagiarism seems to stick to journalism like a leech, despite universal prohibitions, zero-tolerance policies, and fall out from the 2003 Jayson Blair episode. His extensive plagiarism and fabrication at the New York Times resulted in more than 3,600 newspaper reports in eight months, cover stories in two national magazines, and two books” (Lewis, 2008). Another similar case is that of James Frey, who fabricated stories within his book, A Million Little Pieces, about Oprah Winfrey and Larry King and was publicly confronted on national TV. Nicole Smith Dahmen wrote in Journalism Studies, “While there are clearly many aspects to the Frey case, at its heart, the event illustrated is ‘‘the selling of false truth’” (Smith Dahmen, 2010) because of the popularity of his book before the scandal.
Once the fabrication of a story is written and printed, I don’t think there is much of a solution but, Stephen Glass’s mistakes could have been avoided. Many people have common knowledge that plagiarism and fabricating stories is wrong. What I mostly learned from the story is to always instill trust in those around you, especially the audience. Glass could have solved his problems by evaluating his own ethical beliefs in journalism and what the consequences would be for his actions. I think Glass made the best of what he could with the scandal by writing a book about it to further his career but, he has undoubtedly lost a significant amount of loyal readers.
Lewis, N. P. (2008). Plagiarism Antecedents and Situational Influence.
Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly, 85, 353.
Smith Dahmen, N. (2010). Construction of Truth and Destruction of A Million Little
Pieces. Journalism Studies, 11, 119.