In the movie Shattered Glass, a young writer by the name of Stephen Glass joins “The New Republic”; and is a staff writer there for 3 years. However, in an attempt to attract his reader’s attention, Glass ends up fabricating over half of the stories that he’s written for the magazine. In an attempt to make himself known, Glass wrote stories on fictional characters and events, tricking everyone, including his co-workers and boss, into believing that he had witnessed these events first hand. Not only did Glass go as far as making up stories, he created fictional characters as well as sources of information.
Two main issues in the movie Shattered Glass that bring me intense ethical messages are the fabrication of Glass’s stories and the lies that he told about the interviewees, and sources of his information. The reason that the fabrication of Glass’s stories sticks out to me is that most of the events he wrote about never took place. Generally, the role of a journalist is to report the facts- not make them up like the author of a fictional piece would. As for lying about the interviewees and sources of Glass’s piece, I find that lying is the most manipulative thing that you can do to another human being; and Glass manipulated people that had trusted in him, and in his work, by convincing them repeatedly that he had honest sources of information.
To me, it seems like Steven Glass fabricated his stories because he was troubled growing up; and he had the gift of imaginative writing. It is understandable that Glass wanted to write about things that would excite readers and bring attention to his stories; however, there are plenty of topics that he could have written excellent pieces on without all of the made-up content. One journalistic value/principle that is at stake here is truth. Steven Glass sensationalized his stories to make them seem more exciting to readers; the downfall to this method however, is the fact sensationalism substitutes the accuracy of a story for such excitement. According to journalist Brian McNair, “Stephen Glass succeeded in subverting a rigorous editorial process to have upwards of forty fabricated feature articles published before he was exposed as a fraud by an online periodical.” By sensationalizing his stories and lying about his sources, Glass manipulated the minds of his readers, his colleagues, and his editors. Not only did he betray their trust in his ethics as a journalist, but he deceived them into believing that his sources were credible, especially Neil, his editor at the time. As Adam L Penenberg states in Lies, damn lies and fiction, “It’s tough proving a negative. It is even tougher proving that something or someone does not exist.” This is exactly the case for Steven in Shattered Glass. When Neil begins to suspect that Steven had not been entirely truthful about his sources he decides to go out and search for them himself; Glass tags along but unfortunately his lies caught up with him, and he was unable to produce any results. The truth is that you can put any nonsense you want down on paper; but in the real-world actions are more reality than words.
Had Steven only fabricated the story about the hacker conference, I could see letting him off with a slap on the wrist. However, due to the fact the he lied about more than half of his papers, makes it difficult for me to feel bad for him. As a journalist, it is important that you remember your ethics and values. Had I been in this situation, I would have come clean much earlier than Glass did. Although I’m sure it was a difficult situation, I feel like the consequences wouldn’t have been as severe had he confessed earlier.
In conclusion, I believe that Glass’ actions were inexcusable. As a journalist, I believe that it is your duty to report the facts, and only the facts. I believe that fictional stories belong in the hands of fictional writers; and factual pieces belong in the hands of a journalist.
**References**
McNair, B. “Trust Me, I’m a Journalist: Shattered Glass and the Crisis of Trust in Liberal Journalism” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Marriott, Chicago, IL <Not Available>. 2014-11-29 from http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p298274_index.html
Penenberg, Adam L. (May 11, 1998) Lies, Damn Lies and Fiction. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/1998/05/11/otw3.html