Shattered Glass tells the story of Stephen Glass’s demise as a journalist at The New Republic. Through sensationalized stories and fabricated sources, Glass managed to deceive his coworkers and the readers of The New Republic. Glass’ web of deceit is made possible by two unethical practices: manipulation and fabrication. His manipulative tactics allowed him to produce fake stories and pass them off as factual news. However, his downfall is inevitable by the snowballing effect of his deceit. The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance views fundamental principles of journalism as having a respect for truth and the public’s right to information. Since journalism is based on honesty, Glass’ entire foundation as a journalist is undermined when it is revealed that 27 out of the 41 stories he’d written were fabricated.
Although we still don’t know why Glass did what he did, a few reasons can be conjectured. One reason could be attributed to the constant news cycle and instantaneous nature of broadcast news, or perhaps the economic pressures that could have encouraged Glass to fabricate his stories. Lasorsa and Dai (2007) describe this combination as “the emphasis on showiness and young employees’ promising careers rather than on the newspapers’ main commitment as a public trust contributes to editors’ blindness to deception.”
Glass’s manipulative tendencies and reliance on fabricating sources is a symptom of deception. Deception is often only associated with undercover methods, however, Lee (2010) explains that “this narrow focus ignores the potential element of deceptiveness in journalists’ relationships with news audiences, for example, when journalists manipulate photographs, tamper with quotes, fabricate news, and stage events–acts that do initiate or sustain false beliefs.” Glass’ manipulation and fabrication led to a deception of The New Republic’s staff, sources, and readers.
Once Glass, or any journalist in a similar situation, is caught in a lie, their credibility is erased. Cases like this make major dents in media’s credibility as a whole. The Janet Cooke case is often brought up as the catalyst of media distrust, her lies “signaled the beginning of a radical change in the role of the media in American life. We live now in an age when no one fully trusts the media” (Sager, 2016).
I think an important step in rectifying a situation like this is to admitting your mistakes. In order to rebuild trust, you must balance the confidence and vulnerability to admit mistakes and be held accountable.
Lasorsa, D. L., & Dai, J. (2007). Newsrooms Normal Accident? Journalism Practice,1(2), 159-174. doi:10.1080/17512780701275473
Lee, S. T. (2005). Predicting Tolerance of Journalistic Deception. Journal of Mass Media Ethics,20(1), 22-42. doi:10.1207/s15327728jmme2001_3
MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.meaa.org/meaa-media/code-of-ethics/
Sager, M. (n.d.). The fabulist who changed journalism. Retrieved from https://www.cjr.org/the_feature/the_fabulist_who_changed_journalism.php