Shattered Glass

Earlier this year, there was a bit of a kerfuffle when an editor at the German mag NEON was fired after it became clear that some of his articles were based on interviews that had either taken place in a different way to which they were used in the articles, or had not taken place at all. Shit got real for Ingo Mocek when an interview he had done with Beyonce, via message boards, found its way to her US management, who smelled a wolf-sized rat and got in touch with NEON. 

I remember reading that interview in this year's January edition and thinking that this was possibly the most interesting and fun Beyonce interview that I'll ever read (partly due to the fact that while she's an incredible artist and woman, she's got to be one of the dullest interviewees ever). And when the story came out about Mocek having made the whole thing up, I had to wonder whether I actually cared that much that the interview had never happened - I was entertained for a good 10 minutes (which I wouldn't have been had actual quotes been used) and issues of "accurate reporting" are surely more important when it comes to actual newsworthy and significant topics.

"Shattered Glass" deals with the similar true story of Stephen Glass, who got fired from The New Republic after making up whole stories - quotes, interviews, people, places, everything. It's got two of my favourite actors in it (Chloe Sevigny and Peter Saarsgard) and is a pretty gripping account of what happens in a newsroom full of young, ambitious (and, usually, dickish - although almost every journalist in the film is played as a perfectly nice person) hacks. There's a scene I loved where two of Glass's colleagues talk about how he's schmoozing every important editor in Washington. "Is that what you want? Editors blowing smoke up your ass?" asks Sevigny's character. "Yes. Yes, it is." replies her mate.

But it's really all about Glass (played excrutiatingly angelic - but well - by Hayden Christensen) and his step-by-step breakdown in the face of an online publicaction (another nice lil' subplot there) picking apart a story about hackers and his editor (Saarsgard, who really does look like Ed Balls) getting increasingly furious at what he considers treason of the magazine.

Glass, who we're made to believe was well-liked by almost all of his colleagues and had a maddening tendency to apologise for everything (it made me realise how annoying I must be most of the time), first tries to deflect people's suspicion by saying that he was "misled" by the hackers he spoke to for the article (there is, at one point, talk of a "National Assembly of Hackers" or something equally ridiculous). This apparently happens often and has certainly happened to me once. A year ago, I was writing an article on the Babycakes craze, and got in touch with a dude who was posting pretty nasty stuff on some kids' myspace profiles and on YouTube. I got as far as interviewing him via e-mail before realising that he was trolling me like a n00b. Roflcopter etc.

But anyway, the film. It's really very good and not just for journo geeks. I had a bit of a Google craze afterwards, looking for other stories about journalists making up stories (apparently Glass even worked for the incredibly awesome This American Life). It's an interesting topic, and I couldn't help but thinking that there might be a place for fiction in journalism. I'll go think about that some more now.

 Photo credit: Infinity Ranch