Shattered Glass Analysis

The idea of not believing everything that is published in the news was sparked from Stephen Glass, writer in The New Republic. Prior to his insightful publication, false stories were rarely challenged and almost never “debunked”. Glass masterfully exposed society to this new awareness. Based on the efforts of Stephen Glass, Buzz Bissinger author of Vanity Fair’s article “Shattered Glass,” created a separate piece discussing the escalating topic of false news. Bissinger’s goal was to raise awareness of the potential impact of intentional fabricated stories in the news has on society. Bissinger exposes Glass’s writing style and how the infatuation of success led to his demise of his journalism career. Glass was “one of the most sought-after

Success is driven from a powerful place in a writer’s mind. Not only in writing, but in every aspect of people’s lives, success is typically the determining factor when deciding whether to do something or not. For Stephen Glass, success was the most important factor when he was writing a piece to publish to the world. He did not care if his deceitfulness went to the highest level of his capacity, as long as that story ended with the success of his own. Michael Crowley, a coworker of Glass, said that the “nickname for Steve was Hub” because he needed and did know everything about everyone, “that’s why, to some extent, his reporting was credible – he knew everything inside the magazine, so why wouldn’t he figure out what was going on in the world of his stories” (Bissinger). Using the example of how Glass’s charisma and genuine personality made him personable with all of the workers and employees at the magazine. Having this leg up, made it easy for him to ignore the ethics of the workplace and just drive his successful stories. The audience feels the emotion and panic coming from Glass when he hesitantly asks, “Are you mad at me?” (Bissinger). Glass had something missing inside “that core sense of confidence and security,” and it was clear to see once his lies were uncovered (Bissinger). Glass went further than anyone had ever seen. He did not let his insecurity and inner self-loathing distract his movement towards success. The emotional impact of lying through each piece of evidence that Glass inserted in his stories influences how the audience read his pieces. He trapped his audience into believing the fictional statements he wrote when they believed that they were reading non-fictional