Two themes in Shattered Glass that show intense ethical messages are deception and honesty. According to Webster’s Dictionary, to deceive means to “cause someone to believe something that is not true”, which is something that Stephen Glass portrayed throughout the movie that led to his demise. Honesty was another ethical theme, one that Glass struggled with, which is defined as “free of deceit or untruthfulness ”. When either deceit is used or honesty is not used in a piece, it is deemed unethical and the journalist loses all credibility.
Throughout the movie, Stephan Glass seemed to be an extraordinary journalist, finding extraordinary stories that drew not only his coworkers in, but the entire nation. He made television appearances about his stories, was interviewed about his stories, and built up an impressive reputation. That was until it was discovered that Glass fabricated almost all of his stories.
Glass used deceit to gain credibility and gain a following but by doing this, he dug his own grave. In Bonnie Brennan’s Making Sense of Lies, Deceptive Propaganda, and Fake News, she cites Bok’s Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life, which claims that “lies add to the power of the liar and reduce the power of those who have been deceived by altering their choices”. By deceiving his coworkers, Glass made them feel like they weren’t successful journalists or that they weren’t working hard enough to get a good story. Even though the stories that Glass fabricated we’re hard hitting news stories, by deceiving the readers, he ruined the reputation of The New Republic and influenced the choice of the readers with which magazine they prefer to read.
Though it was never explained in the movie why he fabricated these stories, in an interview with CBS News, Glass said he “loved the electricity” of people enjoying his stories and that he wanted every story to be a “home run” (CBS News, 2003). He chose esteem over honesty. In Jefferson Spurlock’s Why Journalists Lie, he quotes Saltz who says liars “lie to protect themselves, look good, gain financially and socially and avoid punishment” (Spurlock, 2016). Glass was dishonest because he wanted to make himself look better and he wanted to boost his self-esteem.
Glass never had ill-intentions while fabricating his pieces, he completely destroyed his reputation as well as the reputation of The New Republic. By being deceptive and dishonest, lost his relationship with his coworkers, his bosses, the readers, and other journalists. People began to question whether other journalists fabricated stories. This case of fabrication has taught me that though you may succeeded in fabricating stories in the short term, no one can get away with it in the long term. It is better to come out with a less entertaining but completely truthful story than to create a fiction story and pass it as fact.
Brennen, B. (2017). Making Sense of Lies, Deceptive Propaganda, and Fake News. Journal of Media Ethics, 32(3), 179–181. https://doi-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1080/23736992.2017.1331023
Leung, R. (2003). Stephen Glass: I Lied For Esteem. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stephen-glass-i-lied-for-esteem-07-05-2003/
Spurlock, J. (2016). Why Journalists Lie: The Troublesome Times for Janet Cooke, Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair, and Brian Williams. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 73(1), 71–76. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=125698524&site=ehost-live&scope=site