Shattered Glass is a movie that is based on real life event focusing on the character of Stephen Glass, the newest and youngest writer in the magazine, The New Republic. Journalists aims to provide the public the truth about a certain topic, and to consider information as truth it has to be backed up and supported by facts and credible sources. In the movie, the most evident problem was the frequent fabrication of stories of Stephen Glass for the magazine. In the start Glass was keen on bringing ordinary stories to light, often saying that writing about small stories may bring him a Pulitzer prize someday. With his interesting stories, he has gotten praises saying that other writers should write more interesting stories similarly to him. These praises slowly have gotten to his head, making him prioritize interesting stories.
Glass published an article entitled “Hacker Heaven”, a story where a teenager hacked Jukt Micronics, which then made him be employed in the said company. This was considered to be another successful article by Glass, due to it being unique and that their magazine was the only one to produce it. This story however was proven false by Adam Penenberg from Forbes Digital Tool, when Penenberg himself investigated about the happening in Jukt Micronics. After Penenberg’s investigation, he found out that there are no credible sources that Glass provided, and that this situation did not even exist. Glass provided false contacts, fake websites, and imposing that there were meetings held, when in fact there was not. Given that Glass was liked by majority of the writers and employees, it was hard for them to believe that he would do such a thing. This is because Glass had his moves calculated to manipulate his coworkers to his friends.
Another journalism sin that Glass has committed was when he kept pretending to be another person in order to acquire information about certain topics. This method of falsifying his identity can be seen when he was sharing how he got the news of Mike Tyson biting Holyfield. Glass pretended to be a psychologist that specialized on human biting, and because of this false title he was given the chance to talk to a radio station for about 45 minutes. Glass clearly is not aware of the wrong that he has committed since while telling the story he was beaming with happiness and was also laughing with his co-workers. Another instance when he faked his identity was when he was doing a story about a young republican. He was by the minibar with some working men, and given that Glass is very charismatic he was offered to attend the conference he wanted through the men he befriended. According to Tim Harrower, this act of faking identity is also a sin in the journalism industry.
Eventually, Chuck Lane, the main editor of The New Republic magazine, fired Glass due to his fabricated stories. I believe that this is the best way to handle the situation, because if Lane only suspended Glass, he would not realize the grave sin he has done considered in the journalism industry. If he was also to continue his practice of writing, there will be a possibility that he may continue his way of fabricating stories, since he was only punished with a suspension. After being fired The New Republic magazine released a statement apologizing that they have published articles containing false information. This is a great move of the magazine, since if they have not done this, they would continually receive judgements and they always be questioned regarding the articles by other magazines. The readers also have the right to know what has happened to the magazine. More so because Glass has been one of the prominent writers that a lot of readers stay tuned into.
Journalism is not an easy job; it requires hard work and persistence by the writer. One has to follow lead by lead just to reach a story worth reporting and sharing to the public. However, currently sensationalism has been rising in the industry, due to people only caring about the money that they will get after each article. The movie is a great example on how bad journalism may still be celebrated depending on a person. How we, the readers, are susceptible to false stories without us knowing. In the end of the day, it is up to us to always dig a little bit deeper into a topic to ensure that what we have heard or read is reliable.
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