I don't know what to say. Stephen Glass, WTF were you thinking? I wish I could sit down with him and just pick his brain for about an hour to see what in God's name made him think that writing the best story The New Republic had seen in awhile, would not be looked at by other magazines and that they wouldn't have questions. That someone reading that piece would look at it and say,"well that can't be right." Fabricating stories? Just completely making up everything? When does that ever seem like a good idea?
Shattered Glass was very interesting the second time coming. I saw this movie two years ago, and still, I'm like why would someone ever do that? It makes me wonder if the journalism is that cut-throat and that competetive that people just start making shit up in the hopes that their readers are informed as well as entertained. For those of you reading this who have not done your homework and watched the movie let me paint Glass for you.
Stephen Glass is sweet, good looking, funny, and supportive. He is also the most manipulative son of a bitch to walk this planet. He's a kiss-ass suck up brown noser who might be a good writer, but at this point who the hell knows. Everytime someone asks him if they can speak to him he immediately asks, "Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong?" At the staff meetings when they let everyone know what it is their working on, he tells these dramatic stories that has everyone laughing and smiling. He waits until they've all calmed down and then says, "I know. It's silly. I probably won't even finish it." Next thing you know it's in the next issue. He knows how to make people feel sorry for him if he's messed up so much to the point that they don't want to punish him. It's absurd.
So back to me being worried. I think this movie depicts a really scary part about being in the journalism business. It's a hard industry. Running ragged under deadlines, needing to get things right 100% of the time. There is no room for errors. I'm not surprised people get scared and start making things up. I'm just annoyed he thought he could continue to get away with it.
Shattered Glass was very interesting the second time coming. I saw this movie two years ago, and still, I'm like why would someone ever do that? It makes me wonder if the journalism is that cut-throat and that competetive that people just start making shit up in the hopes that their readers are informed as well as entertained. For those of you reading this who have not done your homework and watched the movie let me paint Glass for you.
Stephen Glass is sweet, good looking, funny, and supportive. He is also the most manipulative son of a bitch to walk this planet. He's a kiss-ass suck up brown noser who might be a good writer, but at this point who the hell knows. Everytime someone asks him if they can speak to him he immediately asks, "Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong?" At the staff meetings when they let everyone know what it is their working on, he tells these dramatic stories that has everyone laughing and smiling. He waits until they've all calmed down and then says, "I know. It's silly. I probably won't even finish it." Next thing you know it's in the next issue. He knows how to make people feel sorry for him if he's messed up so much to the point that they don't want to punish him. It's absurd.
So back to me being worried. I think this movie depicts a really scary part about being in the journalism business. It's a hard industry. Running ragged under deadlines, needing to get things right 100% of the time. There is no room for errors. I'm not surprised people get scared and start making things up. I'm just annoyed he thought he could continue to get away with it.
Haha. I liked your title "Are you mad at me?" Glass was such a creepy guy. I thought he was going to murder his boss at the end of the movie (good thing he didn't go anywhere alone with him). If I worked at the magazine and found out that my coworker was constantly beating me out for great stories which were completely false, I would be so angry! Even after he was caught for his lies, the film states at the end that he went on to write a best seller book about his story which would make me even more angry that he was gaining MORE credit for what he did!
ReplyDeleteHaha. I would also like to sit down with him and ask him how he could possibly think he was going to get away with that. He seems the type to just not care though. Like at the end of the movie, when he was sitting with his lawyer across from The New Republic people, he just seemed like, "Yea, I did it. WHAT?"
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