The Ethics of Journalism
Part 1
From watching the movie Shattered Glass, the two main ethical issues I saw being brought up was fabrication and dishonesty. Dishonesty was seen when we realize that Stephen Glass was lying about where he got his sources. We learn this when the guys who were looking up Glass’s resources realized that there were some strange things about his sources such as a fake company website and the company phone number that kept going to voicemail. However, even when Glass is caught, he lies and says he was fooled and that people should believe him, even when that wasn’t true. They learned that the only way he could have possibly got his story was through voicemails and a fake website.
Fabrication was also seen when Glass was on the phone with the magazine’s editor Chuck Lane and the guys who found errors in his paper. As he’s being questioned we realize that some of the stuff he wrote he either didn’t mean to say, didn’t actually happen that way, or didn’t happen at all. We also learned towards the end credits that Glass had fabricated 27 out of 41 stories that he wrote for the “New Republic”.
Part 2
Some possible reasons as to why Stephen Glass did what he did could possibly be because he may have ran out of good stories so he started creating new ones. Another reason could be he thought the stories he was writing were getting boring so he started adding things to make them more interesting or even entertaining.
There are many ethical issues at stake such as the question of are you being honest to your readers and whether you are reliable/ trustworthy or not. What Glass did probably put the entire company at risk and as a result, he probably lost credibility and respect. He probably put his employees at risk also. If one journalist was caught fabricating stories, how does society know other journalist of the “New Republic” were also doing the same thing?
As a journalist, it’s crucial to maintain journalistic values and principles such as being a reliable source, being credible, professional, honest, and trustworthy. Journalist are to state the facts only and what’s real; not lies or fabrications. Journalist should also understand that it’s important to represent your company truthfully and successfully by having solid resources to prove your facts.
If I was in this similar situation, I would have told my boss once my trend of fabricating stories was growing. I recommend doing that because at least you’re being honest; hopefully the consequence will be less. I think it’s better to be caught by the boss than embarrass the company by someone else finding out similar to how Glass was exposed. I would also write a formal letter apologizing and being aware of my wrongdoing as well as the possible consequences.
Part 3
This biggest solution I would say is to just tell the truth. Usually when a newspaper/magazine finds out a reporter has been fabricating they tighten their reviewing process of papers run so that they can catch it if the situation was to happen again. For example, when Jayson Blair was caught fabricating the stories he wrote for The New York Times,
“the editor, Howell Raines, announced that a committee would be formed to address what went wrong. He also said that two top editors would examine what repairs needed to be made to the paper’s systems for managing expense accounts and keeping track of reporters’ locations (Kelley, 2003).”
However, the consequences for being caught fabricating/lying about a story are very harmful to a journalist career. A journalist can lose their position or job which will make it harder for them to find another one. However, “Despite the strong feelings of plagiarism and fabrication, few people are able to say that anyone should be forever exiled from their profession (O’Brien, 2000, p24).” Though they are wrong for what they did, it doesn’t end their career. Yet the feelings of guilt and shame as well as loss of trust and respect from others still exists. After a while, people won’t be able to tell your truth from a lie and everything you say or even write, even when correct, becomes questionable. People lose assurance in you.
The lesson I learned from the movie “Shattered Glass is to make sure as a journalist, you write the facts as they are. I also learned how important being credible is; making sure people always trust you and to never lose that respect. It’s also important to be honest as a journalist regardless of whatever situation arises. Finally I learned to be ethical and to know that as a journalist, you’re responsible for the info that people will get and spread to their friends and family.
References
Kelley, T. (2003, May 13). Times Editor Details Steps to Prevent a Recurrence of Fraud. New York Times. Lexis Nexis Academic.
O’Brien, M. (2000). When the Words Are Not Our Own. Quill, 88(9), 24. EBSCOhost.
