The New Republic’s staff writer in the 1990s, Stephen Glass, fabricated 27 of his 41 stories for the magazine. Glass violated the code of ethics and continued to create bigger problems for himself with his willingness to make up stories countless times. With multiple unethical decisions, he caused dishonesty with two unacceptable targets: the audience and his colleagues. By deceiving his audience and colleagues, Glass lost the trust he had with both parties which would be difficult to ever repair.
In addition to breaking the trust with those two targets and ruining his journalistic career, he also harmed the publication by putting them in a negative light due to his continuous lying. For as ambitious and intelligent he was, he was very willing to go the extra step to fabricate his stories which would lead him to more pain and jeopardizing his career.
I believe one of his motivations to continuously fabricate his pieces was due to the fact, he enjoyed the responses he would get from his readers. According to an interview with Glass on ‘60 Minutes’, he admitted that he loved the responses he would get after one of his vivid stories. He said, “I love the electricity of people liking my stories. I loved going to story conference meetings and seeing how excited they would be..” (CBS, 2003). As rewarding as positive feedback may be, he was building up a fake relationship with his readers which would eventually jeopardize gaining that trust back. As a writer, you build honesty and trust with your audiences. By building that trust up with lies, not only do you potentially ruin that trust forever but the news organization is also seen in a negative way.
There are many ethical issues at stake. “Ethics is a set of moral principles, a code- often unwritten -that guides a person’s conduct.” (Foreman, 16) According to Gene Foreman’s book, “The Ethical Journalist”, ethicist Michael Josephson proclaims there are two aspects to ethics. First, ‘the ability to discern right from wrong’ and secondly, ‘the commitment to do what is right, good, and proper.’ (Foreman, 16) Glass’ decisions were clearly unethical as he continued to do what was wrong. As a journalist, you are not a fictional author, a journalist’s job is to state the facts accordingly, which Glass violated.
There are many values and principles at play when one cannot do the job they are supposed to do and continue to lie. Glass also ruined the relationship he had with his colleagues which is one of two targets you should never be dishonest with. At a news organization, you are all one team and wanting your team to be the best. Specifically in the movie we watched in class, “Shattered Glass”, Glass was perceived as everyone’s friend, innocent, and kindhearted. It definitely was not suspected as someone who would do something like this, but that goes to show “you should never judge a book by its cover.”
However, Glass especially crossed the line when he begged an ex-editor, Michael Kelly, for support. “Glass volunteered that his most extreme sin was begging Kelly to write a letter to one of Glass’s sources who was challenging him.” Once the truth came out, it did not make Kelly look too good either. (Rosin, para. 13). Besides the fact he made up his stories, I found it very shocking his willingness to involve colleagues who had no idea what was happening due to help his sticky situation. Glass continued to dig a bigger hole for himself by going behind the backs’ of his colleagues which shows this dishonesty should never occur.
Stephen Glass is not the only journalist to have lied about their work. There have been and will be numerous cases where journalists would and will fabricate, plagiarize, and alter their work. In 2003, The New York Times “published corrections and plagiarism notes for 39 stories” written by their own reporter, Jayson Blair. (Shapiro, 262) This was also another situation like Glass which a journalist struggled being honest.
Along with Glass, Blair and many other journalists, there is a pattern of this kind of behavior that makes you wonder why dishonesty thrives? For as intelligent as these reporters are, why is lying a continuous pattern when journalism is supposed to be the fairest? It is no question that Stephen Glass is a brilliant writer and very hardworking. However, due to the continuous fabrication of his stories and the loss of trust between him and his colleagues/readers, he ruined that trust and will never be able to gain it back. Not only did his actions demolished his journalism career but forever will he be remembered as, ‘shattered glass’.
- Foreman, G. (2016). The Ethical Journalist (2nd ed.). Wiley Blackwell.
- King, L. (n.d.). ‘60 Minutes’ (CBS, Season 35, Episode 37) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/30824692
- Rosin, H. (2014, November 24). Hello, My Name Is Stephen Glass, And I’m Sorry. The New Republic, 245(19), 42-51. Retrieved from Penn State University Libraries database. (Accession No. 99695133)
- Shapiro, I. (n.d.). Why they lie: Probing the explanations for journalistic cheating. Canadian Journal of Communication, 31, 261-266. Retrieved from Penn State University Libraries database. (Accession No. 113549491)