Situation
In the film “Shattered Glass,” we were able to witness the journey of Stephen Glass’s career at The New Republic. The first ethical issue I noticed was his complete fabrication of articles. Our textbook stresses that as journalists, you should never lie to the audience. (Foreman, 2016). Glass made up the majority of his stories with false facts and false sources.
The second ethical issue faced in the movie is the fact that when he was confronted by other colleagues, including his editor, he continued to deny the allegations. Our textbook also states to never lie to journalist’s colleagues. (Foreman, 2016). It became so serious that he drove out with his editor to the apparent location of the Hackers convention. Throughout everything, he never admitted his mistakes until years later.
Analysis
Glass fabricated the firm from “Hacker Heaven,” his notes, phone conversations, and the firms fake website. (Hiltzik, 2015). He loved having people pay attention to his stories so he continued to fabricate them to seem more interesting. However, if he wanted to make stories meant to entertain and lie rather than inform and tell the truth; then he joined the wrong profession. He disobeyed the first rule in the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics — seek the truth and report it.
In an article written by Ivor Shapiro of Ryerson University, he discussed the growing use of the internet to help find the roots of plagiarism and fabrication. You would think that many more journalists today would be scared to even try to fabricate their work because of this. But, it still happens today. Shapiro goes into Glass’ book, The Fabulist, and how it gives explanation on why Glass decided to fabricate many of his stories. “He longs to be admired and loved; he cheats to avoid rejection…also points a stern finger at workplace pressures.” (Shapiro, 2006, p. 262). Shapiro ties this in with Glass’ 60 minutes interview when he said “I said every time ‘You must stop…’ But I didn’t… I loved the electricity.” (Shapiro, 2006, p. 263).
Glass continued to lie to the public through his false information. Even though he knew what he was doing was wrong he didn’t want to risk others not being interested in his stories. But that’s just what they were. Stories. It beat the purpose of being a journalist. What he was doing was basically creative writing.
Leading up to the second ethical issue, Glass not only lied to the public but he lied to his colleagues as well. He lied to his editor, his friends and other news outlets. In a Columbia Journalism Review from July 1998, free-lance writer, Ann Reilly Dowd interviewed former editor of The New Republic, Michael Kelly. Kelly said “any fact-checking system is built on trust. If a reporter is willing to fake notes, it defeats the system.” (Dowd, 1998, p. 15).
Ironically, Glass was previously a fact-checker for The New Republic so he knew just how to cheat the system. No matter how much he wanted to impress anyone or how much pressure he was feeling, fabrication was never the solution.
Conclusion
Charles Lane did the right thing firing Glass. If I was in his situation I would have done the same thing. There was no possible way that you could trust him again after all the lying he had already done. How would you be able to work with someone who continued to cheat the system when everyone else was working hard for their stories. It just seems unfair.
Right from the moment there were questions raised about the authenticity of “Hackers Heaven,” I would have been on Glass’ back about everything. However, I would like to think if I was editor I would have caught on much earlier. For instance, I would have had more fact-checkers working for the news organization especially on Glass because he always seemed to have the most far-fetched stories.
I learned that although there is a code of ethics for journalists, not everyone will abide by these. There will always be those who believe that they can get away with fabrication and plagiarism.
References
Hiltzik, M. (2015, December 15). Stephen Glass is still retracting his fabricated stories – 18 years later. Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-stephen-glass-is-still-retracting-20151215-column.html
Shapiro, I. (2006). Why They Lie: Probing the Explanations for Journalistic Cheating. Canadian Journal of Communication, 31(1), 261–266. https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2006v31n1a1595
Dowd, A. R. (1998). The Great Pretender. Columbia Journalism Review, 37(2), 14–15