Blog 2 – Shattered Glass by Kyle Kiehart
Steven Glass was a Journalist for “The New Republic” and wanted to be the best known journalist in the world. He had a passion for having the top story every week and wanted his story to be at the very top each and every week. Little did anyone know that Steven Glass was a “cheater”. He had Published 27 out of 41 false stories on one of the biggest magazines out there. Two main issues about Steven glass was that he was dishonest and didn’t tell the truth and also that he was lying to his colleagues.
“If it was sunny outside and Steve and I were both standing outside in the sun and Steve came to me and said, ‘It’s a sunny day,’ I would immediately go check with two other people to make sure it was a sunny day,” says Lane. Why would Steven Glass lie and be dishonest about his stories. From the beginning I could tell that there was something about Steven that made him suspicious. He would always say to people “Is there something I did wrong?” when they would ask a question to him about his work and he would also say, “I know it sounds kind of silly, I probably won’t even finish it”, talking about his stories. This just didn’t seem right for someone of his standards to say. I think Steven glass loved the attention of being the best. I think he lied because he wanted to have the best story every week and if he couldn’t find a story worthy of that, he would just make one up himself that would bring the readers and peers in. How are people going to trust Steven on even the smallest things after he lied so much? In journalism trust and honestly are two of the highest values you can have. In Steven’s case I believe he became addicted to lying so much that he didn’t even see what he was doing was wrong. All his lies got so caught up that he couldn’t even make another one up at the end of the movie to back himself up. Steven was under a great amount of pressure and I feel like that had a lot to do with him making up his stories. He said he wanted to stop and kept saying that to himself multiple times in hsi head but he cracked under pressure. I believe the best thing Steven could have done at this point when facing a challenge like this would be to either take a break from the job, tell the truth to his ediotr, or jsut write stories of something real instead of making up fake news, even if it meant not having the best story each week.
“Steve was figuring out people’s blind spots — their biases, prejudices — including myself. He wrote pieces that benefited him at the expense of those people,” quote by Bradley, editor-in-chief of Worth magazine. Steven Glass lied over and over again to his colleagues. How can you trust and work with someone who has lied multiple times to you? He was cheating in order to take the spotlight away from everyone else who was writing in the magazine. Lying will get you nowhere because in order to back up a lie you have to create another one, then another after that to cover the lie you just made. It is a never ending cycle of lies that lead to no truth. I believe Steven understood at the end how bad of a colleague he was because he couldn’t even face the fact of apologizing to his colleagues after he got caught and still hasn’t up this day. I was a member/teammate of many teams in my life and it has helped me a lot to understand what having trust is all about. For example, I was the quarterback of the football team and I had to have trust in my linemen that they would block, the wide receiver had to have trust in me that I would throw him a good pass, and the coach had to trust us players that we would execute the play. It goes the same for a magazine company. The editor has to trust that his writers are being honest and are going to write the best they can. The writers have to trust each other that they will fact checked and correct grammar for each other’s stories. The main point I am trying to get across is that trust is such a major key in working with a group of people.
These are the things that I would have done if I were in Steven’s situation. I think that Steven Glass just should have admitted to his editor that he has lied about some of the material in his articles and came up clean about it right then and there. It would have made things a lot easier for him going forward and could have potentially saved his career. He could have also written an apology letter to not only his colleagues, but also to the whole world explaining about what he did was wrong and understanding that it could have affect a numerous amount of people. If he did this, people might have had a different perspective of him going forward. I do not think that there is any solution or hope for Steven glass. I think this because he couldn’t even tell the truth to some of his greatest friends and family, he just kept making up lie after lie. How can anyone believe or give a chance to someone who has been lying for over the past 10 years constantly.
I have been taught throughout my life that Honestly is the best trait you can carry with you going forward in life. No one wants to be lied to. My father would always tell me that “A man is nothing without his word”. I carry this with me to this day in being honest whether it was wrong and right and owning up to my mistakes. From watching shattered glass, it has continued to teach me on my lesson of being honest and that you will always get caught telling a lie. “Get the truth and Print it” A quote by John S. Knight”
References
|, C. N. (2015, July 24). A Trustworthy Press is the Immune System of Democracy. Retrieved February 08, 2017, from http://craigconnects.org/2014/11/a-trustworthy-press-is-the-immune-system-of-democracy.html
Karas, B. (n.d.). Trust me, an infamous serial liar says. Retrieved February 08, 2017, from http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/16/justice/stephen-glass/
Leung, R. (2003, August 15). Stephen Glass: I Lied For Esteem. Retrieved February 08, 2017, from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/stephen-glass-i-lied-for-esteem-07-05-2003/