Stephen Glass: Redemption Sought but Pending
In 1998, Stephen Glass was an up-and-coming journalist. His articles were staples of The New Republic and he also contributed to George Magazine, Rolling Stone and Policy Review. He reached the zenith of his career before experiencing a deserved crash and burn.
Glass was found not to be writing about the news, but making news up. From 1996 until his outing in 1998 Glass wrote fiction as news and cleverly covered his tracks with fake emails and notes from sources and such that supported his made-up articles.
Glass had a difficult relationship with his parents who wanted him to be a doctor. Although accepted to pre-med he also joined the school newspaper. This greatly disturbed his parents who berated him for “wasting his time.” Glass, who claims he cannot stand the sight of blood, felt he was ill-equipped to be a doctor. After a period of estrangement he reached an accord with his parents that he would pursue a degree in law. Reluctantly, they agreed with the proviso that the law program offer a dual degree – the other being a M.D. He found such a program at NYU and was accepted in 1995. However, Glass put attending school off to pursue a journalistic career based in Washington D.C. at a small magazine called The New Republic.
While his writing was well received by peers and the public, his parents thought of them as worthless and never read them. Tensions ran high, and when Glass returned home to visit his parents he was more comfortable staying in nearby Chicago hotels than with them.
In 1996, he was writing an article called “The Hall Monitor” and inserted a phony quote into his draft as a place holder for a quote he was trying to get. For whatever reason, that first made up quote stayed in the article as Glass thought it enhanced the piece. He then began to insert made up things into other work that was mostly true but supported by falsehoods. Eventually, he gave up all pretense of reporting and simply made up things.
In disgrace as a liar and a cheat, his journalistic work was called into question. The New Republic fired him and no one would ever accept an article from him again.
Glass graduated law school in 2000. In 2003, he wrote an autobiographical novel called The Fabulist.
After years of therapy, Glass insists he has changed. It is critical that people believe him as he is trying to force the California Bar Association to find him of good moral character so that he can join. His supporters, and there are many, say that he is a changed man and his desire to be always truthful is earnest and real.
His psychiatrists say Glass was seeking much needed approval that was not forthcoming from his parents when he falsified his news stories. Glass himself asserts he is the only one responsible for what he did and his parents are not to blame. His psychiatrists offer an explanation of why he did things that were so wrong – not an excuse. The psychiatrists say that years of therapy have been fruitful and that Glass, now nearly 40, is not the man who committed fraud at age 25.
The case is now with the Supreme Court of California. They will decide if serial lying as a journalist over a decade ago should prevent Glass from becoming a lawyer. It seems to some a bit ironic that the legal profession, one of the most distrusted professions in the United States, has a problem with a known liar – they might think it simply is proof of his qualifications to practice law.
