Stephen Glass
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Stephen Glass was a reporter for The New Republic magazine during the late 1990s. Born and raised in Highland Park, Illinois, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994, where he was Executive Editor of the Daily Pennsylvanian, the University's independent student newspaper, in 1993.
In 1998, he was fired from the TNR after it was discovered that he had committed several cases of journalistic fraud.
The story that triggered these events was called "Hack Heaven", and concerned a supposed 15-year-old computer hacker hired to work for a large company as an information security consultant after breaking into their computer system and exposing its weaknesses. Like several of Glass' previous stories, "Hack Heaven" depicted events that were almost cinematic in their vividness and that were told from a first-person perspective implying Glass was there as the action took place. Below is the story's opening:
- Ian Restil, a 15-year-old computer hacker who looks like an even more adolescent version of Bill Gates, is throwing a tantrum. "I want more money. I want a Miata. I want a trip to Disney World. I want X-Man comic [book] number one. I want a lifetime subscription to Playboy, and throw in Penthouse. Show me the money! Show me the money!"...
- Across the table, executives from a California software firm called Jukt Micronics are listening- and trying ever so delicately to oblige. "Excuse me, sir," one of the suits says, tentatively, to the pimply teenager. "Excuse me. Pardon me for interrupting you, sir. We can arrange more money for you ..."
Soon after the publication of "Hack Heaven," Forbes magazine reporter Adam Penenberg presented evidence to The New Republic that the story was fabricated and that the company depicted in it did not exist. An internal review by TNR confirmed this, and found that Glass had created a shell website and voice mail account for the company in order to deceive TNR's fact checkers. TNR also determined that 27 of 41 stories written by Glass for the magazine contained fabricated material.
After TNR fired Glass, he completed his law degree at Georgetown University Law School. In 2003, he began appearing on television to promote his "biographical novel" The Fabulist. "I wanted them to think I was a good journalist…a good person. I wanted them to love the story so they would love me", he told Steve Kroft of CBS News' 60 Minutes in an interview.
A movie detailing Glass' experiences, titled Shattered Glass, was released in 2003. It stars actor Hayden Christensen as Glass.
Resources
- Glass, Stephen. The Fabulist (2003). ISBN 0743227123
See also
External links
- Stephen Glass archive at forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/20/cx_mn_0520glasslander.html)
- Lies, damn lies and fiction (http://www.forbes.com/1998/05/11/otw3.html) by Adam Penenberg, forbes.com, May 11, 1998
- Salon.com: Hacker heaven, editors' hell (http://archive.salon.com/21st/rose/1998/05/14straight.html)
- Stephen Glass: I Lied For Esteem (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/07/60minutes/main552819.shtml) - Interview on CBS News' 60 Minutes
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