Situation Definition
Steven Glass was a former writer for The New Republic, and was fired on a basis on fabricated stories. He fabricated 27 out of 41 articles published. He exemplified immoral behaviors as a journalist which violates the ethical standards upheld journalists and most news sources.
Glass would fabricate stories based on imaginary people, places and idea. He knew his actions didn’t meet the journalism standards set in place because he would bypass the system most of the time. He most importantly bypassed fact-checks and if any issue ever came up with a fact-check he would use manipulation. Glass manipulated his co-workers, editors, and readers into trusting him with his proceedings of dishonesty. It wasn’t until Glass was confronted in court and national television that he admitted to the most intense ethical violations as a journalist; honesty and trust, in which journalism is built upon.
Analysis
As humans, we feel a moral incentive to do the right things because it just feels right but Glass didn’t display any moral incentive. He appeared to fabricate the stories as if he believed they were real himself, and once he did it once there was no reason to stop. He received a glimpse of how far it got him. Once a lie feels right, ethics begins to hang by a string.
Glass’s ethical values of honesty and trust were pitted against his non-ethical values of status and wealth. As mentioned in the reading, non-ethical values are natural desires with a neutral value. However, if an ethical value is violated in the pursuit of a non-ethical value, that is when the non-ethical value becomes unethical.
He then had to subject to the demands of the reader base he created when he began to publish those famous fabricated stories. According to Weinhold (2008), “study finds American community newspaper journalists forced to negotiate their values and internalize business demands in order to answer to their employers’ profit motives.” Not only did Glass now have the pressure of expectations from the readers to satisfy but possibly also the companies. It could be Glass began fabrication with the motive of pleasing his editor and the company’s goal to sell stories.
Glass used his relationships with the editors, and fellow journalists to gain power within the company. He built trust among them that is how he was able to bypass any healthy suspicion. Priding himself on being able to cheat the system, that’s the moment he started to betray his readers, The New Republic and journalism’s trust. Journalism is tainted when ethical standards expected by others are broken by any single journalist. Glass had an effect on readership trust which doesn’t just remain on the magazine he works for. It creates a societal issue because, “if less than a third of Americans trust the news, we are in a crisis of journalism” (Usher, 2018).
Conclusion
It’s sad his stories and unethical actions rose him to fame yet his legacy lives on through the wrongs he did. His dismissal was appropriate to his degree of unethical journalism.
It’s also ideal to exemplify to readers that such activity will not be tolerated. However, an individual should not be given too much trust in a profession based on honesty. We’re humans and desire will always be a magnified temptation once power is achieved.
References
Usher, Nikki. (2018). Re-thinking Trust in the News: A Material Approach Through “Objects of Journalism.” Journalism Studies, 19(4), 564-578. Doi: 10.1080/1461670X.2017.1375391.
Weinhold, Wendy. M.(2008). Newspaper Negotiations. Journalism Practice, 2(3), 476-486. Doi: 10.1080/17512780802281222.