“Shattered Glass” — Blog 2 by Trenton Wright

“The New Republic” had a reputation destroyed by one man, who still hasn’t said sorry. Stephen Glass fabricated many news stories and allowed himself to become comfortable reporting fake news. Glass is the poster child for lack of ethics in journalism. Sometimes everything in his stories were made up including fake names, events, and locations. Glass acted in a way that was unfair to the public and the occupation of journalism. We will never know why he lied and glass may not either but there is an obvious ethical issue here and the world of journalism had to make sure it never happened again. Glass lied because his great made up stories that everyone loved, made him feel admired. Every time he was confronted he made himself the victim and asked “are you mad at me? “This simple question immediately made people that were confronting him, think they were attacking glass. Glass had no interest in doing the right thing and went against all the values of the journalism profession. In the interview, we watched in class it seemed that glass had no remorse for what he had done and I believe he is going to have a very hard time becoming a lawyer. His fabrication of stories seems to amaze me and makes me wonder how hard in today’s time it would be with all the fact checking that take place online. A journalist who lied in an article today would easily be caught within hours at max. In journalism, it is very important to tell the truth. I have learned that the pressure to be great or successful doesn’t outweigh the reputation and guilt you receive after not being ethical in your work.