‘Shattered Glass’ has key lessons for journalists

I guess in some ways this is going to be the de facto second part of last week’s column.
See, movies like “Spotlight” and “All the President’s Men” show journalists in purely a positive light, but I think it’s important to remember journalists are humans and we sometimes do things we shouldn’t.
“Shattered Glass” is a far less widely recognized journalism movie, but I would argue it is just as — if not more — important than the others. It keeps us humble.
It is based on the story of Stephen Glass, also a true story, toward the end of his three-year career at The New Republic magazine.
During his time there, Glass was the star reporter and had numerous cover stories. He was also writing for Rolling Stone, Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine and Mother Jones.
However, in May 1998, the reality of Glass’ work started coming out.
He wrote a story, Hack Haven, about a 15-year-old computer hacker being hired by a company (Jukt Micronics) that he hacked to be a security consultant. The story took place at a convention.
When reporters at Forbes, which was fairly new at the time and one of the first purely internet-based publications, started requesting sources so they could do a follow-up story, things got messy.
This is probably one of the few movies that can make unanswered phone calls and busy dial tones interesting, as the phone numbers and emails he provided lead to only dead ends.
We get classic lines like: “A major software company with only one phone line?” and “Why would a major software company put their website where only AOL users can access it rather than the entire web?”
Okay, maybe there’s a reason why this isn’t a very popular movie. It’s phone calls and web searches and questioning minor details. It’s not thrilling.
But that’s what fact checking is and that’s the point. See, the climax of the movie is when everything comes tumbling down and it becomes obvious the story Stephen Glass wrote — and The New Republic published as a front-page story — is completely made up.
There’s no Jukt Micronics, no 15-year-old computer hacker hired as a consultant at a company he hacked and the convention never even happened.
In the aftermath of what you see in the movie, the staff found that 27 of his 41 articles were either entirely made up or based on real events with fabricated quotes.
Charles Lane, the magazine’s editor when Glass’ fabrications were found, said in an interview to go with the movie that The New Republic doesn’t vouch for the authenticity of those other 14 stories.
“In fact, I’d bet lots of the stuff in those other 14 are fake too,” he said.
The movie ends with Glass’ firing, but the story continues. See, he was in law school at the time and his time at The New Republic haunted him into that profession as well.
In his application to the California Bar, it admitted 36 of his stories were at least partially fabricated. He’d previously failed to pass the New York Bar’s moral test specifically related to his journalistic malpractice. He was also unsuccessful in California. While he isn’t a lawyer, he is working at a California law firm as director of special projects.
So, what’s my point in bringing all this up? Why am I, as a journalist, talking about a very dark spot in the industry’s history?
Simple, it matters. The story of Stephen Glass, and the editors who didn’t catch fabrications before publishing the stories, is a reminder that we can make mistakes.
Glass himself made far more than a few mistakes, but the magazine editors weren’t fully doing their jobs for three years to let that much slip in.
As an editor, there’s a fine line between trusting your staff and questioning them, but it’s important to find that line to make sure stories are factual.
Even more so now when we have the internet at our fingertips, fact checking is important. It maybe takes a minute to double check how to spell somebody’s name, but if enough mistakes like that get through, then you lose all credibility.
If remembered, the story of Stephen Glass is a warning to everybody to ask questions and don’t just blindly believe what you read.
To me, one of the most iconic scenes for the movie is a wall of magazines with one edition after another pulled off the shelf as Glass’ work calls them into question. One poorly fact checked story puts the entire edition and publication into question.
That is why the industry needs to remember Stephen Glass, and others like him, whenever we do work to keep it from happening again.

Michael Shine is a contributing writer for the Daily American Republic.