The movie Shattered Glass shows what can and will go wrong if you are unethical in the field of journalism. Based on real life occurrences, Shattered Glass, depicts the life of Stephen Glass, a very popular journalist at The New Republic. As the most popular and exciting journalists at The New Republic, Glass’ coworkers are constantly eager to hear his story ideas. Glass loves this attention and gets caught up in constantly wanting to please his coworkers and his readers, leading him to making unethical decisions in his writing: fabricating many aspects to his stories, and not holding himself accountable when he is confronted about it.
When the word comes out at The New Republic of the unethical speculations against Glass, many of the coworkers that are very fond of him, try to make excuses for him. Many say he is just a kid, or that he could never do that, while it is also depicted throughout the movie Glass is under extreme pressure to please his parents, whom are unhappy with his career path. Stephen Glass was one of the younger journalists in the office, yes, but he was not a child, and should have absolutely held himself accountable for his actions. It would have been one thing if he did it once, resulting in less permanent consequences, but the fact he fabricated almost every one of his stories, going to the extent of creating fake websites and answering machines, is unforgivable.
Salem State University’s Caitlyn Boucher says, “Many people would assume that since journalism and free speech are protected by the first amendment, the press should have unlimited freedom. But what happens when stories are made up and shared?” (Boucher, 2017). Stephen Glass acted as though he had unlimited freedom in creating his fabricated stories, when in fact he should have never made anything up and gotten away with it. In the professional field of journalism, there is a firm belief/rule that journalists need to tell the truth, as depicted as one of the SPJ’s main four principles journalists should follow: “Seek truth and report it, some things this principle includes are: not plagiarizing, avoiding controversial methods of seeking information, hold those with power accountable, and not purposely distorting facts” (Professional Journalists, 2014). Glass distorted many facts, and in some stories, he made up all of the facts, and yet even when he was confronted, he did not hold himself accountable for his actions, but shied away from it immaturely, constantly asking his superiors, “Are you mad at me?”
National Ethics Committee member, Dan Bolton stated in an article, “In making their decisions, journalists are told to weigh the consequences, the effect on journalistic credibility, the motivation for their actions, the deceptive acts in relation to their editorial missions, the legal implications of the actions, and the consistency of their reasoning” (Bolton, 1994). In the midst of blatantly fabricating majority of his stories, Glass had to have known there would be consequences and probable loss of all credibility as not just a journalist, but a person. But why did he not stop when he knew what he was consistently doing was wrong? When he was met with the consequences he dug himself deeper into a hole, time after time denying the fact that he fabricated. Accountability is an extremely important characteristic for journalists, and was one Glass clearly did not have.
Journalists are supposed to be able to be trusted. Stephen Glass had many readers and coworkers that loved and trusted his work, until they found out he was deceiving them all along. There is no room in the journalistic world for liars like Stephen Glass. People look towards journalists for their everyday information, and if they cannot trust you, the journalist, who can they trust for their information?
Citations:
Bolton, D. (1994). Code of ethics. Quill, 82(9), 42. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=9411283940&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Boucher, C. (2017, November 21). Journalistic/Media Ethics. Retrieved September 20, 2018, from https://redskiesmagazinessu.wordpress.com/2017/11/21/journalistic-media-ethics/
Professional Journalists, Society of. “SPJ Code of Ethics | Society of Professional Journalists | Improving and Protecting Journalism since 1909.” SPJ Code of Ethics | Society of Professional Journalists , Society of Professional Journalists, 6 Sept. 2014, http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp.