Blog 2- “Shattered Glass” by Matthew McClure

Situation Definition

The movie “Shattered Glass” tells the story of a upcoming journalist who worked for the “The New Republic” named Stephen Glass.  Glass was an intelligent person and very outgoing so people wanted to be around him. He gained popularity for his great storytelling throughout his articles, and had his readers engaged into his work.

However in the middle of the movie, Glass came out with a story that was later found completely fabricated. It was found that 27 of his 41 stories were fabricated and his reputation was ruined.  Two journalism ethics issues that I saw from the movie were fabrication and dishonesty. Glass was dishonest and lied to his colleagues again and again because he was feeling the pressure. Sometimes choices have consequences and in Glass’ case he made a bad choice that led to severe consequences.

Analysis 

The first unethical issue Glass raised question about was fabricating a story. In journalism fabrication is when someone invents stories and sources that violate ethical principles. Glass did whatever it took to deceive his colleagues and readers by making fake notes, voicemails, people, and websites. His stories were always entertaining and people liked his stories. In a interview with Steve Kroft on the CBS show 60 minutes Glass said ““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” (Spurlock, 2016 p. 73).  When looking at this quote from Glass, it all makes sense. He wanted people to love his work, so he did whatever it took to make sure it was the best, even if it was lying.

The second unethical issue Glass raised question about was his dishonesty, especially to his colleagues at work. Trust is something in the workplace that is expected, and Glass broke that completely. He lied to people straight to their faces and they couldn’t see it. The people who knew Glass said he was very insecure and needed constant attention (Dowd 1998 p.2). Chuck Lane, editor of the “New Republic” while Glass was still there recalls him saying, “Do you hate me? Do you hate me?” Lane says now, “I don’t wish him ill,”  “I don’t wish him death. I just don’t want him to be in journalism” (Dowd, 1998 p. 1). From looking at the quote from Lane you can see that Glass hurt the people he worked with the countless lies. If I were faced with the same challenges of the colleagues I would feel hurt too, and would prevent something like this to happen again.

Conclusion 

After watching the movie and looking deeper into the case I found that being ethical with the people you work with and yourself is important. Glass should of been honest with his fellow colleagues and taken responsibility for his actions. Instead he did the exact opposite and his reputation as a journalist is completely ruined. This really was a great movie because its showed the ups and downs of one aspiring journalist with a lot of talent.

References