CNN Stephen Glass story

Have any issues cropped up about Glass in the past few years?

 

Plagiarism destroys a writer's reputation.

Fabrication destroys the writer's reputation and a publication's.





(amended to sound less like a fortune cookie.)

 

This is where I fall.

He has now worked in, or is trying to work in, two somewhat esoteric professions in which intrinsics may matter more than skill, business acumen, or even, smarts.

Integrity and ethics are lynchpins in journalism and law, and Glass showed that, to a large extent, he doesn't have them, or is capable of consciously and purposely suspending them.

There are people for whom it is exceedingly difficult to lie, about anything. They are just honest people. Glass demonstrated that that is not necessarily the case with him. Hence, he shouldn't be a journalist or a lawyer.

I am normally a forgiving person, but it annoys me that Blair and Glass have even recovered, and are being allowed to move on and prosper as much as they have since their downfalls in journalism.

There are people in this industry who have been terminated or all but chased out of the business for things far less egregious than anything they did, for things more related to office politics or personalities or even circumstances of a newsroom -- things that may forever remain unclear to them -- who have to be satisfied with recoveries far less prosperous and successful than theirs.

Theirs are cases of notoriety helping them, the same as celebrities who are successful and/or forgiven their transgressions because...well, because they are famous and "known."

Name recognition is such a shallow thing, and yet, it matters so much.

 

I know people who have come up with semi-convincing excuses for plagiarism. I can't imagine saying the same about someone who fabricates something.

Although, I thing fabricating stories happens regularly in this business and always has because plagiarism is a lot easier to prove.

 

I hope Glass has a smoking cover letter.