Shattered Glass is a movie based on the life of former journalist Stephen Glass. It focuses on the ethical dilemmas and issues that Glass unfortunately had to face while working at The New Republic, a well-known and widely read publication. One could say that Glass was faced with the issue of fabricating his stories by making up quotes, facts, and other important information, but instead he created this problem on his own, and continued to lie about it to everyone.
As previously mentioned, Glass had been caught producing fake stories that ran in The New Republic. Despite constant questioning and deep investigation into the “facts” and “quotes that he used to prove he was innocent, he was later found to be guilty and lied about everything. Both fabrication and lying, or deception, are main, ethical issues to be analyzed.
It could be assumed that Stephen Glass is a victim in the movie because he is portrayed as a likable person. Once he is initially accused of creating fake news stories, he immediately tries to cover his tracks with facts, contacts, pictures, and exact locations of places he had been to gather information. As the plot progresses, it becomes more and more unbelievable that Glass was telling the truth and that maybe he actually was deceiving everyone. Therefore, one reason that he would choose to fabricate stories and lie to people would be that no matter what wrongdoings he committed, he felt like he could still be liked by others. In other words, while there were several investigations taking place to prove that he was lying, his friends still stood behind him and said that he would never do something like that.
To further elaborate on Glass’s likability, it was evident to those around him that he was also under a lot of pressure. As a budding journalist, it’s easy to fall into a trap of perfection and wanting stories to be better than everyone else’s. Because of this mindset, it was easy for Glass to create stories that would grab the attention of readers and impress his coworkers. He started to dig a hole for himself in that he wanted to maintain his friendships with the people around him, while also receiving praise from them regarding his work and how well it was received by audiences. Ultimately, he became stressed and figured the best option was to continue doing what he was doing: fabricating stories, lying, and acting like nothing was wrong.
Once in the wrath of being under pressure, it’s hard to escape. As Glass gets deeper and deeper into his trail of lies, he has no other choice but to fabricate his stories to keep up with the front he’s been putting on for people. Again, these two ethical issues he’s dealing with here are affecting his credibility and professionalism. In other words, once others got wind of him creating information to use for stories, and he constantly tried to lie about it, no one wanted him to write anything anymore and knew that he would have a difficult time getting hired elsewhere. To elaborate on this, Stephanie Craft says, “Professionalism and acting in accord with professional ethics are also associated with excellence” (Craft, 2017). This relates to the case regarding Stephen Glass because he had maintained a deceptive persona of professionalism that resulted in his excellence, but did not uphold professional ethics standards.
Furthermore, because Glass was consequently shunned from the professional world because of his unethical actions; he will no longer be considered as a potential employee for any company in any field anywhere. By word of mouth, and extensive coverage from the press regarding this issue, Glass’s chances of getting a job are slim to none. He unknowingly was the cause of the downfall of his career; he didn’t think that his actions would come back to haunt him, per se.
In regard to journalistic values that come into play with the Glass case, one that stands out in particular is that of fact-checking. All journalists are made fully aware of the importance of fact-checking and how every aspect of a story must be correct. To properly fact-check, a story is passed around to other members of a news staff to contact people or places that are mentioned to confirm that quotes, names, addresses, etc. are accurate. The level of fact-checking done by members of a news staff should be extremely diligent. “‘News’ – produced by journalists − should adhere to a range of professional standards, including that the facts be independently corroborated and that the story be in the public interest (lying to the public is not in its interest)” (Sheerin, 2017).
If faced with a similar situation—specifically deliberately fabricating stories, lying about it, and then getting caught—I would personally feel bad about my actions. Deep down, I would have to admit that I was wrong and own up to my actions. However, throughout the process of fabricating stories, I would have a gut feeling that it would end poorly for me. To potentially resolve the negative outcome(s) of such a situation, I would just have to willingly accept any sort of punishment and try to portray myself as a credible person moving forward.
Considering I am a more empathetic person, I would have to offer more solutions than consequences as a result of Stephen Glass’s situation. I would attempt to persuade his coworkers to let him off easy and give him the benefit of the doubt for the state of mind that he was in, but it would have to take them some time to accept that. However, throughout Glass’s time of fabricating and lying, I would try to offer him a way out as soon as possible—preferably to own up to his wrongdoings the second a story was questioned. It’s best to identify the problem sooner rather than later to avoid anything bad.
To go off of that, and to conclude this analysis, the biggest lesson learned here is that lying and deception are never the answer. It’s clear that doing either only results in serious consequences, but sometimes people do not understand that. People get wrapped in a vicious cycle of lying after they do it once or twice, and it’s hard to escape that normality.
Resources:
Craft, Stephanie. “Distinguishing Features: Reconsidering the Link Between Journalism’s Professional Status and Ethics.” Journalism & Communication Monographs, vol. 19, no. 4, 2017, pp. 260–301., doi:10.1177/1522637917734213.
Sheerin, C. (2017). Regulations are a bigger threat than fake news. Media Development, 64(2), 33-35.