Situational Definition
Shattered Glass is a movie aired in 2003 about a journalist named Stephen Glass and his scandal at the New Republic. He was loved by his co-workers and was truly gifted at writing before he made a journalists worst mistake. Glass turned out to have fabricated 27 of his 41 published writings. Stephen Glass lied to not only to his co-workers but also to his audience and did not stop lying until he was caught.
A journalist’s sole purpose is to give the audience the truth behind every story. In this case, Glass did the exact opposite to try and make his stories as thrilling as possible. Shattered Glass brings two ethical dilemmas into question. The first one being trust, and the second follows along with Glass not reporting his deceptions.
Analysis
News that journalists provide is a part of communication that informs us about truthful events, entertainment, or characters around the world. Some journalists tend to let the idea of fame blur the ethical principle of truthfulness which often leads to deception in their writing. Nobody wants to read anything but the truth and journalists would lose all credibility if readers were to find out that they were fabricating their stories. In an article called When the Words aren’t Ours by Meredith O’Brien, she mentions “The Daily News’ Kosner labeled Glass’ fabrications saying, “That’s clear cut and patently wrong” (O’Brien 2000). In the 60 minute video shown in class, Glass mentioned that he never had intentions of writing all those stories made simply out of lies. He started off writing little lies in his pieces and ended up completely making up stories, sources, websites, and telephone numbers. It is a snowball effect, once you start, you can never look back.
Glass was a young journalist who at his age, was making way more money than the average journalist, because his stories were taking off. He continued to deceive his audience because they loved his stories. He lost trust from everyone and especially his editor who had been fooled by his deceptions. His editor, Chuck Lane, mentioned that after finding out that he had fabricated 27 of his articles, he would not trust a single thing he said. He noted “If it was sunny outside and Steve and I were both standing outside in the sun and Steve came to me and said, ‘It’s a sunny day,’ I would immediately go check with two other people to make sure it was a sunny day,”(Lane 2003). Chuck Lane emphasizes the everlasting effect that Glass had on the people he fooled in the route of his unethical career.
After Forbes magazine had started to realize that Glass’s story “Hack Heaven” was not adding up, he still did not come clean. He continued to lie and cover up his tracks until he ran out of lies. Instead of coming clean after one mistake, he followed on the same path and ended his career at the New Republic with 27 fabricated stories. This is a huge journalism issue because as readers, we trust the fact that the article is 100 percent true. It is scary to realize that there are well known journalists like Stephen Glass who are deceiving their readers. This causes a lot of trust issues and why I hope that his story has changed the world of journalism for the better.
Stephen Glass speaks out about how he made mistakes in the past but continues to write truthful stories in order to gain trust back from his previous readers. In an article called Facts and Fiction by Gal Beckerman, he mentions that “In much of the book, which tells the story of “Stephen Glass”, a young reporter with the same fate as the author, we hear the familiar excuses. ‘I wanted people to love me,’ Glass says again, and again”. (Beckerman 2003). His reasoning behind the fabrications was strictly for attention and popularity. He lied to boost self confidence.
Conclusion
I am in no way a perfect writer, I have definitely made mistakes in the past and that is inevitable. With that being said, it is not acceptable to fabricate 27 pieces. Knowing that this type of journalism can still happen is scary but I hope to find journalists that I can trust to give me nothing but the truth.
Consequences for the type of fabrication that Stephen Glass performed should be severe and I would hope that he finally has realized that what he did was ethically wrong. If i was in his position, I would have owned up to my mistakes a lot earlier on. It is much easier to move on from a mistake if you own up to it.
References:
O’Brien, Meredith (2001, October 1). When the Words Aren’t Our Own, Retrieved September 20, 2019, from
Beckerman, Gal (2003, September 1). Facts and Fiction, Retrieved September 20, 2019 from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=9&sid=a6444938-6c93-4b69-9953-639778eacf70%40sessionmgr101
Leung, Rebecca (2003, May 7). Stephen Glass: I Lied For Self Esteem; 60 Minutes, Retrieved September 22, 2019 from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stephen-glass-i-lied-for-esteem-07-05-2003/