A journalist’s main responsibility in society is to seek the truth and report it. Whether that means writing up a story about a hockey game or uncovering a massive political scandal, journalists are relied upon to provide an accurate account of the world’s happenings.
The film Shattered Glass showcases two ethical issues, the first being deception, and the second being the fact that those who lie once are far more likely to have lied on other occasions.
In Shattered Glass, an up-and-coming, seemingly talented journalist named Stephen Glass takes the journalism world by a storm with vibrant and colorful stories written for the New Republic. The film takes viewers through a journey of Glass’ stories, which include a cover piece about a convention of teenage hackers. The story includes quotes from Ian Restil, a 15-year-old hacker, his agent Joe Hiert and a company called Jukt Micronics.
Here’s the catch: neither of those people or Jukt Micronics exist. Glass made the entire story up, which led to his downfall at the New Republic which came at the hands of Forbes reporter Adam Penenberg. Glass figured out how to crack the fact-check system and had been deceiving readers, co-workers and editors for years. Steve Kroft, a reporter for 60 Minutes, outlined the extent of Glass’ lies in “Why journalists lie: the troublesome times for Janet Cooke, Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair, and Brian Williams” by Jefferson Spurlock. “He made up organizations and quotations. Sometimes, he made up entire articles,” Kroft wrote. “And to back it all up, he created fake notes, fake voicemails, fake faxes, even a fake web site-whatever it took to deceive his editors, not to mention hundreds of thousands of readers”
Lou Hodges, a journalism and ethics professor, defined deception as “acts that intentionally seek to make others believe what we ourselves do not believe,” (Hodges, 1988). Sissela Bok added in her book Lying, that deception can occur, “through gesture, through disguise, by means of action or inaction, even through silence,” (Bok, 1978).
Glass simply deceived anyone that he could to boost his own self-esteem. Instead of working hard to find the most interesting stories, Glass showed his disrespect for the industry that he worked in in search of the approval of those around him.
“I loved the electricity of people liking my stories,” Glass told Kroft in 2003. “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.”
In “Why People Lie and How to Tell if They Are,” by Gail Saltz, Saltz says that people “lie to protect themselves, look good, gain financially or socially and avoid punishment,” (Saltz, 2004). This is showcased perfectly through Glass’ faults.
As Dr. Z said in his lecture a couple weeks ago, liars don’t lie just once.
Lies were found in 27 of Glass’ 42 articles for the New Republic. Instead of accepting that he had been exposed and taking the necessary steps to try to restore his reputation, Glass continued to lie, creating fake emails, websites and phone calls in an attempt to deceive his editor, Chuck Lane and Forbes.
Reporters will continue to feel pressure in today’s industry where it’s difficult to secure jobs and ultimately create separation from other journalists. On top of that, as Spurlock points out, lying isn’t going anywhere in society. But journalists must be held to a higher standard. Events such as Brian Williams simply being demoted from NBC News to MSNBC after various lies that he told spanning decades were uncovered, sets a precedent to other journalists that sometimes lying is worth it to advance one’s career. A tougher precedent must be set.
Lastly, if anything good came from Glass’ situation, the fact that with his Penenberg sparked a new age of online journalism shows that hard work and truthful reporting still gets rewarded. I’m sure we’ll find out this year about a new journalist whose career is built on lies. Dozens of noteworthy reporters are probably lying at this moment and will get away with it. But sound and honest journalism will always be rewarded, as exhibited through Penenberg’s work and the downfall of Glass.
References:
Black, J., & Roberts, C. (2011). Doing Ethics in Media: Theories and Practical Applications. New York: Routledge.
Bok, S. (1999). Lying: Moral choice in public and private life. New York: Vintage Books.
Foreman, G. (2016). The Ethical Journalist: Making Responsible Decisions in the Digital Age. Hoboken: Wiley.
Saltz, G. (2004, January 31). Why people lie – and how to tell if they are. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from https://www.today.com/health/why-people-lie-how-tell-if-they-are-2D80554952
Spurlock, J. (2016).Why Journalists Lie: The Troublesome Times for Janet Cooke, Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair, and Brian Williams. A Review of General Semantics.