Shattered Glass Analysis

The film Shattered Glass presents the ethical issues of fabrication and the deception of the writer, Stephen Glass, to his editor and co-workers. He deliberately sensationalized his stories in order to gain his reader’s attention. His facts were partially, if not completely, inaccurate and he presented notes that he fabricated as facts for each of his pieces at the New Republic. Journalists in the media have a duty to the people to report the truth and follow an ethical code whenever reporting stories. If I did not know anything about journalism, I would have to conclude from the film Shattered Glass that the purpose of journalism is to report the truth no matter what even if the story seems boring to you. Also as a fact checker/editor do not let your friendship with a fellow writer cloud your view when editing a piece that they write. Stephen Glass’ fellow co-workers liked him so much, that they did not hesitate to question the solidity of his “notes” he presented each time he turned in a new article. Unethical journalism does not seem to be prevalent in today’s society. I realize that unethical journalism does occur, but it is generally not tolerated. Stephen Glass was fired after his editor discovered that he had been fabricating stories and Janet Cooke’s career was over after people found out that she completely fabricated her article “Jimmy’s World.” In the world of journalism I do not believe that being unethical will ever be acceptable. Most publications always print a retraction or an apology. It is all a matter of whether or not a person gets caught for their unethical behavior or not. If Adam Penenberg, from Forbes Digital would have never asked questions about Stephen Glass’ article “Hacker Heaven,” then it is very unlike the editor Chuck Lane would have found out about Glass’ deception. Glass may have still been writing fabricated articles for the New Republic to this day. The impact of unethical journalism on society is great. When unethical