A few words could describe a serial killer or even a celebrity. Due to public perception and industry expectations, they are also words that could describe a journalist. It’s important for a journalist to make the right decision when comes their ethics.

In the movie “Shattered Glass” a journalist named Stephen Glass was a fabricator for the “New Republic”. Glass had a bad habit of constantly lying and writing articles that weren’t credible.  Most of his pieces that were displayed in the “New Republic” and “Rolling Stone” were specious and made up with false information. Glass would come up with dramatic stories, because he loved how it caught the public’s attention. In result, his lies came back to him, bringing him down. Another company named “Online Forbes Magazine” had done researches for facts on his recent story about a young hacker at a hacker’s convention; however, Glass’s mistakes slowly revealed his lies. ” I’m, sorry…did I do something wrong?”  Soon, Glasses received his first suspension, then was fired to never come back into the journalism industry ever again.

Another former journalist named Janet Cooke, who wrote a story called “Jimmy’s World” has also fabricated lies to impress the public. She was awarded with “Pulitzer Prize Winning” story that was published on the“Washington Post” about an 8 year old boy named Jimmy becoming a heroin addict. Of course, Cooke’s story caught many people’s attention, wanting to help the young boy from his unhealthy addiction. Cooke’s lies soon caught up with reality, since several people including the first lady demanded to know where the young boy was so they could save him; however, Cooke wouldn’t give out any information leading to controversy. In result, Cooke finally admitted that her story was fraudulent and nothing in her story was credible.

    As a  journalist, you should make the right decision with giving the public credible facts, because the truth is better than  a bunch of fabrications.