Exposed and almost completely discredited as a fraud – Stephen Glass’s contentious tenure at The New Republic remains one of the most widely publicized controversies in the history of journalism. From 1995 to 1998, Glass wrote at least 27 notable articles under two separate editors for the The New Republic that were later determined to have been partially or completely fabricated, invented fantasies concocted by a talented fiction writer posing as a journalist. Glass’s case was, by any standards, extreme – extreme enough to warrant a Hollywood biopic, extreme enough to justify the widespread societal shame that prompts dishonored people to seek relative obscurity (or in Stephen’s case, become a paralegal). But in 2023, 20 years after the release of Shattered Glass, it’s unclear if Stephen Glass’s transgressions would even be that big of a deal.
The film, written and directed by Billy Ray, takes a relatively straightforward approach to its potentially sensational story. Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen) is a 24-year-old writer at The New Republic, a magazine where the median age of journalists is 26. Even by those standards, the young Glass is seen as a journalistic prodigy, capable of digging up obscure and outrageous scoops at a moment’s notice and generating notable camaraderie amongst his fellow staff and editors. The occasional factual errors are chalked up to being innocent mistakes, and he seems to be on his way towards an acclaimed and prolific career courting multiple publications. The facade crumbles when Adam Penenberg (Steve Zahn), a reporter from Forbes, digs into Glass’s latest article, “Hacker Heaven,” and discovers that the entire piece may have been invented from thin air.
Shattered Glass sports an impressive roster of talent. Apart from providing an impressive showcase for Christensen, much maligned for his stilted performance in George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels, the cast also includes Peter Sarsgaard as Glass’s editor, Charles Lane, and supporting roles for Chloe Sevigny, Melanie Linsky, Rosario Dawson and Hank Azaria. Christensen is well-cast because his slightly wooden mannerisms and blank stare match Glass’s own deceitful persona. He shuffles awkwardly around the office, hunched over like a kid in a sandbox, sporting thick glasses and a haircut that emphasizes his young age. When confronted with the simple queries that would help his case, he defaults to childish questions like “are you mad at me?” or “did I do something wrong?” It’s a well-calibrated, smarmy schtick that works disturbingly well. Sarsgaard is similarly strong as Lane. One senses that the newly appointed editor resents Glass’s showman demeanor even before he’s proven fraudulent. He conducts his investigation with the reluctance of someone who prizes integrity over reputation yet must consider the latter for his own sake.
Most of the tension in Shattered Glass comes from the extreme lengths that Glass goes to hide his deceptions. He constructs a fake website, business cards, and a voicemail machine to throw Lane and Penenberg off his tracks. He employs deceptive and emotionally manipulative vocabulary to instill guilt in those around him, even going as far as to threaten self-harm if he’s fired. In the real-life Lane’s own words, “we extended normal human trust to someone who basically lacked a conscience.” The film is surprisingly mild given the inherent drama of its premise; the only real structural flourish is an imagined framing device involving Glass speaking to a class of high school students. Shattered Glass began life as a TV movie for HBO before the project was picked up for development by Tom Cruise’s production company, Cruise/Wagner Productions. Those small-screen origins can be felt in the film’s modest scale and workmanlike direction. Ray’s avoidance of sensationalism is admirable, but the drama could have used a bit more heat.
Perhaps Shattered Glass’s relative quaintness is so damning due to just how prevalent falsity is in our modern media landscape. It’s hardly difficult to find examples of news outlets presenting misleading or blatantly incorrect versions of events nowadays, depending on whose interests are at play. If Stephen Glass were outed as a fraud today, he might get his own podcast or TV show. Even in 2003, he was able to capitalize on his infamy to write a “biographical novel” called The Fabulist, about a reporter who fabricates entire stories for his own gain. We’re now so desensitized to major political figures spouting blatant untruths that Glass’ lies seem minor, even ordinary, in comparison. He may feel shame for his actions, but 20 years after the release of Shattered Glass, politics and media have only gotten more shameless. The film operates both as a dramatization of compelling events, but also a period piece depicting a time when breaching journalistic ethics to this extent was a news-worthy issue. Like many notable films about journalism, such as All the President’s Men (a chief inspiration for Ray’s film), Shattered Glass is an emboldening reflection of reporters having the courage to seek the truth regardless of consequence. If those aspects date it, then perhaps it tells us something troubling about the present.
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