The code of ethics plays a huge role in journalism. All journalists must practice good ethics for the public to trust them. Shattered Glass is a story about the young journalist Stephen Glass who fabricated several articles from The New Republic. While I was watching the movie, I was impressed with how great of a liar Glass was towards his coworkers and boss. However, Glass is an example of how easy it is to become an unethical journalist. Two main issues that brought powerful ethical messages include Glass’ fabrication in his articles and lying to the public and his coworkers.
The use of fabrication in Stephen Glass’ articles not only made The New Republic look bad but also his character. Even though he knew that it was wrong, Glass continued to make up false stories to be a relevant and well-known journalist. He wanted to be able to write stories that readers would enjoy discussing. Glass stated, “I loved the electricity of people liking my stories. I loved going to story conference meetings and telling people what my story was going to be and seeing the room excited. I wanted every story to be a home run” (Leung, 2005).
Glass managed to fabricate news stories by continuously lying to his coworkers. Knowing that he had a great relationship with his colleagues at The New Republic, Glass went so far to try to get them to back him on his lies. When his former editor Michael Kelly used to stand by everything he did, Glass assumed that the new editor Chuck Lane would fall for his deceit.
The public interest is a journalistic value that plays a role in this situation. One journalist describes Shattered Glass as a movie that, “likely will reinforce the Hollywood stereotype of journalists as sleazy and insensitive attack dogs with no regard for the truth (Erlich 2005, p. 110).” A journalist’s job is to attract the public’s attention with the accurate and current news. Whenever I read a news article, I’m always looking to learn about the latest news on whatever the story is covering. In this case, Glass was “blinded by journalism’s lesser values,” and his career ambitions and “the thrill of getting a good story” was more important (Shapiro, 2006). He didn’t think about the public’s interest due to making them believe information that was completely false. If I were in Chuck Lane’s position as the editor, I as well would fire Glass and go as far as getting the company to sue him. Glass’ fabrication of articles put the entire magazine in jeopardy and most likely lost the company a lot of money. I would also suggest Glass make a live public apology.
There is a huge difference between creative writing and journalism writing. If Glass was into coming up with make-believe stories to catch our attention, then he should have been an author or a creative writer. There are a lot of ethical rules that come into play in journalism. Always lying to the people you work with and to your audience for your satisfaction will only make you look untrustworthy and selfish. If I were in Glass’ footsteps, I would have asked the editor or a coworker for any tips on how to make a story stand out.
References:
Ehrlich, M. C. (2005). Shattered Glass, Movies, and the Free Press Myth. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 29(2), 103-118.
Leung, R. (2003, May 7). Stephen Glass: I Lied For Esteem – CBS News. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stephen-glass-i-lied-for-esteem-07-05-2003/
Shapiro, I. (2006). Why They Lie: Probing the Explanations for Journalistic Cheating. Canadian Journal of Communication, 31(1). doi:10.22230/cjc.2006v31n1a1595