Hack Heaven By Stephen Glass Analysis

The actions of Stephen Glass, a once respected reporter for the New Republic, that made him famous, were also the things that shattered his career. It not only made everyone at the New Republic not trust him, but also the readers who believed his stories. His actions were dishonest, and he knew he was spinning false tales, but wanted to become famous, by manipulating his readers and his coworkers.

First off, this young writer had no boundaries when it came to storytelling. Glass would lie about dates, times, names, meetings, etc., all to make a story that would pass the editing process. This is one way he would manipulate people he worked with. The infamous, “Hack Heaven”, that told about how there was a National Hackers Convention, consequently, was one reason he was found out to be writing false stories. Chuck Lane, the editor for the New Republic at the time, told Glass to take him to the place where the convention was held, however when they got there, many things he wrote about were flawed. For example, the building that Glass took Chuck to was closed on Sundays, though Glass said the convention was held there a couple of Sundays before.

Apart from his coworkers, the magazine also lost trust in their readers, after they let 27 false articles out of the 41 articles Glass wrote for them slip through the cracks. This is an example of yellow journalism at its finest, and it shows how young reporters, like Stephen Glass were so eager and determined to become acclaimed writers. At the expense of the people who wrote with Glass, and the readers who were deceived by Glass’ fake articles, posed as