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Stephen Glass

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File:Jukt Micronics fake web page.jpg
A screenshot of the webpage that Glass had created to try to prove his claim that Jukt Micronics existed.

Stephen Glass (born 1974) was an American reporter for The New Republic, who was fired for basing his articles on fake quotes, sources, and events. The story of Glass' downfall is told in the 2003 film Shattered Glass.

Glass went to the University of Pennsylvania, where he was editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian, the university's student newspaper. There his rise to Executive Editor was greatly facilitated by a series of exposés he wrote about the United Way and a "new journalism" piece he wrote about spending a night with homeless crack addicts near Penn's campus. He later obtained a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

Following his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, he rose quickly to national prominence in the competitive world of political journalism, writing articles for The New Republic when he was only 23 years old. However, he would soon suffer a quick downfall.

New Republic scandal

Glass was fired from TNR in May 1998, after it was discovered that he had committed several cases of journalistic fraud. The story that triggered these events was called "Hack Heaven", and concerned a supposed 15-year-old computer hacker, who was purportedly hired to work for a large company as an information security consultant after breaking into their computer system and exposing its weaknesses. Like several of Stephen Glass's previous stories, "Hack Heaven" depicted events that were almost cinematic in their vividness and that were told from a first-person perspective implying Glass was there as the action took place. The article opens as follows:

Ian Restil, a 15-year-old computer hacker who looks like an even more adolescent version of Bill Gates, is throwing a tantrum. "I want more money. I want a Miata. I want a trip to Disney World. I want X-Man comic [book] number one. I want a lifetime subscription to Playboy, and throw in Penthouse. Show me the money! Show me the money!"...
Across the table, executives from a California software firm called Jukt Micronics are listening – and trying ever so delicately to oblige. "Excuse me, sir," one of the suits says, tentatively, to the pimply teenager. "Excuse me. Pardon me for interrupting you, sir. We can arrange more money for you ..."

Soon after the publication of "Hack Heaven," Forbes magazine reporter Adam Penenberg presented evidence to The New Republic that the story was fabricated and that the company depicted in it did not exist. An internal review by TNR confirmed this, and found that Glass had created a shell website and voice mail account for the company in order to deceive TNR's fact checkers. Adam Penenberg, the journalist who uncovered the fabrications actually worked for Forbes.com, the online version of the magazine. Some commentators of the scandal considered it to be a a great coming-of-age achievement for online journalism.[1]

TNR subsequently determined that at least 27 of 41 stories written by Glass for the magazine contained fabricated material. Of the remaining fourteen, former TNR executive editor Charles Lane said, "In fact, I'd bet lots of the stuff in those other fourteen is fake, too. ... It's not like we're vouching for those fourteen, that they're true. They're probably not, either."[1] Three other magazines, Rolling Stone, George and Harper's, which Glass contributed to also reviewed his work. Rolling Stone and Harper's found the material generally accurate but had no way of verifying information from anonymous sources. George discovered Glass fabricated quotes in a profile piece and apologized to the article's subject, Vernon Jordan, a Clinton advisor.

Shattered Glass

A movie presenting a stylized view of Glass's rise and fall, titled Shattered Glass, was released in 2003. The screenplay aimed to portray both the high-pressure world of national political journalism and the inside workings of a national political magazine. The well-received movie stars Hayden Christensen as Glass.

Attorney and author

Stephen Glass completed his law degree at Georgetown University Law Center after being fired by TNR. In 2003, he began appearing on television to promote his "biographical novel" The Fabulist. "I wanted them to think I was a good journalist, a good person. I wanted them to love the story so they would love me", he told Steve Kroft of CBS News' 60 Minutes in an interview. He also used his time on national television to apologize to his ex-coworkers. His detractors, however, suspected these signs of contrition were merely to promote his book and believed Glass still could not be trusted. This interview was included as a special feature for the DVD edition of Shattered Glass.

Glass lives in Los Angeles.


Further reading

  • Glass, Stephen. The Fabulist (2003). ISBN 0-7432-2712-3
  • Very few of the articles that Glass wrote for The New Republic are still available online. Below are links to some of those articles which Glass is suspected of fabricating in part or in whole:
  1. “Mrs. Colehill Thanks God For Private Social Security”, June 1997, for Policy Review magazine. PDF format.
  2. “Probable Claus”, published January 6 & 13, 1997
  3. “Don't You D.A.R.E.”, published March 3, 1997
  4. “Writing on the Wall”, published March 24, 1997
  5. “The Young and the Feckless”, published Sept. 15, 1997
  6. “Washington Scene: Hack Heaven”, published May 18, 1998
  1. ^ Audio commentary by Charles Lane to the 2005 DVD edition of Shattered Glass.
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