by Aharon Hacohen

Created on: January 18, 2009

Truth. It is at the essence of what journalism is all about, or at least what it should be. It is the
journalist's job to inform the public about reality, not to entertain.

Unfortunately, this is a concept that was not understood by Stephen Glass. As a writer for New
Republic magazine, he fabricated numerous stories and almost got away with it.
He was able to succeed in his deceit precisely because of his talent

as a writer and an entertainer. He knew how to use the system to his advantage. Journalism is a business, and a magazine needs good stories to keep up with the competition and sell advertising.. Glass knew how to provide his editors with juicy stories the kind which would ensure him a promising career. His editors should have been more suspicious about such stories which sometimes sounded too good to be true, but their natural instinct was to trust the reporter. Unfortunately, this is the natural instinct of the readers as well, and it was their trust that was betrayed.

The Glass story points a finger at the journalism industry in general. His fabrications are a product of the modern media world where business pressures often take precedence over the primary purpose of the press to serve the public. It is a world of deadlines and expectations, where there is constant pressure to produce stories good stories as if it were a factory. When journalists are pressured to produce stories, they will do anything possible to meet expectations, just to keep their job. And when the more entertaining stories are rewarded, this only encourages fabrication. Therefore, what Stephen Glass did is by no means a surprise. In fact, in this environment, it would be a shock if there weren't hundreds more like him.

The only way to prevent this kind of abuse of the public's trust is by changing the way journalism is run. It is better to print one good article a week, or one solid issue a year, rather constantly printing garbage just to fill up pages. Journalists need to be given time to report on stories as they happen and encouraged to report what happens
regardless of how extraordinary it is. They cannot be expected to produce stories and they should not be rewarded for writing about things which are more entertaining to the public.

There are plenty of fiction novels for that. That is not what journalism should be about.

Stephen Glass gave the public what they want, not what they need. In the modern world we are over-saturated with entertainment. We have too much fantasy. We need journalism to provide us with a dose of reality. We need journalists who will tell us all the truth, and nothing but the truth. If we cannot trust that we are getting the truth from journalists, then they really serve no purpose. The sad thing is that today it is often hard to distinguish between news and entertainment, since there is so much of the latter mixed into the former. It was this environment which allowed Glass to pull off his sham. The question is whether Glass really abused the
public trust in the media, or perhaps these days they have little credibility to begin with. Either way, a renewed emphasis on truth will never hurt.

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