Shattered Glass

            The second in- class movie we watched was called Shattered Glass starring Hayden Christensen and Peter Sarsgaard. The movie takes place in the publication, “the New Republic, a political commentary magazine. The story is about the fraudulent writer Stephen Glass, and Chuck Lanes pursuit to exploit the falsities.

            Peter Sarsgaard plays as Charles Lane, the newly promoted editor of the New Republic. The previous editor Michael Kelly was fired by his boss Marty Peretz after shouting at Peretz regarding the treatment of his reporters. Charles Lane picked out the problems in Stephan Glass’ previous articles. The first major article that Stephan Glass reported falsely on was “Hazardous for Your Mental Health”. The CSPI responded to the article written by Glass claiming that the article consisted of numerous falsities and that the information had been distorted. Another article written by Glass titled “Spring Breakdown” claimed that there was binge drinking and crude acts going on during the College Republican National Convention. Toward the end of the movie Chuck Lane figures out that most of the article had been fabricated by Glass. In the article Glass wrote that “The minibar is open and empty little bottles of booze are scattered on the carpet”. At the beginning of the movie the former editor Michael Kelly finds that there is no minibar in the Washington's Omni Shoreham Hotel.

            Under the direction of Michael Kelly, he wrote multiple fabricated articles until Kelly was fired. After the firing of Kelly, a reporter at the time Charles Lane was promoted to editor. Lane began to notice the discrepancy between Glass’ stories and the real environments. During the movie, Lane takes the Glass to the hotel where the College Republican National Convention occurred in 1997. Glass tells about how there were hundreds of people in the lobby, but Lane doubts that even a hundred people could fit in the small lobby. When Lane asks the security officer in the Lobby about if they had a convention several weeks back the security officer denies it and tells Lane that the building is “closed on Sundays”. Lane knows that something is wrong about the situation and starts fact checking other stories that Glass has written. After reading his Glass’ articles Lane comes to the conclusion that he must suspend glass until further notice. In the end Glass is fired, after Lane reads fact checks several articles. Lane concludes that Glass has lied about multiple stories in the past. After discovering the scandal the New Republic issued an apology to the readers.

            In conclusion, I felt like Chuck Lane was the most ethical character during the movie. Lane focuses on the facts and keeps his eye on Glass until he discovers the truth. Without Lane being on Glass' tail 24/7, I doubt that Glass would have lost his job, at least for the time being. Under his old boss Michael Kelly, I got the feeling that Glass was given a free pass. It makes you wonder how and why he got by with all of these fabricated stories.