Director Billy Ray’s dramatic film “Shattered Glass” shows the audience the importance of journalism ethics through the career of the young reporter Stephen Glass. Stephen Glass (Hayden Christiansen) is a reporter at The New Republic magazine who is loved for his wildly entertaining storytelling, as well as journalism. Glass is supported by his co-workers, but mainly his editor-in-chief, Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria). Kelly, who is fired after defending his writers to his boss, is replaced by former writer, Chuck Lane (Peter Sarsgaard). When Glass proceeds to pitch his newest idea about a teenage hacker hired by Jukt Micronics after hacking their software his peers are entertained with his vivid storytelling.
Once the article is printed, a web-based magazine editor questions his reporter Adam Penenberg (Steve Zahn) how he missed the story, which causes him to investigate the credibility of Glass’ story.
As the film progresses, the story reveals the information that Glass portrayed as fact is questioned and evidence cannot be found. The evidence that Glass provides is unreliable at best.
The phone numbers he provides always lead to voicemail, the webpage for the software company is sloppy, and all of the sources Glass named cannot be located.
Lane and Penenberg continue to pressure Glass for the information that brought his story to life and his unreliable answers drive him to admit the lazy nature of his story. He claims that his writing was based on reliance of his sources and not his actual presence at the event.
The film