Journalistic Ethics

Former journalist and fabulist Stephen Glass

Situations like Stephen Glass' make people question everything they read. The New Republic Magazine published Glass' story, "Hack Heaven", which turned out to be a work of fiction. Glass was caught by Adam Penenberg, a writer for Forbes Magazine, who found that none of the companies named in his story were real. TNR realized more than half of his published stories were fake or partially untrue, and Glass was fired. This ruined his career in journalism. Five years later, Glass opened up and eventually published a book entitled, "Fabulist". The movie, "Shattered Glass" was also based off of his story. Although Glass was not charged, he payed $10,000 to return his paycheck plus interest. He has personally and publicly apologized for his dishonesty many times, but must further action be taken?

A fine for each inaccurate or non-existent story seems reasonable to me. It should act as a reality check to ensure journalists are doing their job honestly and respectfully. Glass repaying the magazines he wrote for was sensible on his part, as they are the ones being degraded for his fabricated stories. Since Glass has written and published his own book, of course he should be allowed to profit from it. The movie as well since it is the film version of his life. If someone disagrees with his mistakes so much, they shouldn't do anything that could profit him. The reality of this is that it will be incredibly difficult for Glass to get another job in a well-paying field of his desire anyways because of his damaged image. He could try so hard to redeem himself and to convince companies to trust him, but not everyone will be willing to test his honesty.