colette wilkinson 
 

In the world of journalism, there exists a story, rather like a fairy-tale.

There is a villain: Stephen Glass. In May 1998, he brought shame to The New Republic by breaking the sacred rule of truth. He fabricated quotes, sources and even whole stories, which the magazine—once described as "the in-flight magazine of Air Force One"—printed as fact.

 

There is also a hero, who chased down and unmasked the villain. A digital reporter for Forbes Digital at the time, his exposé was hailed as a breakthrough for online journalism.  His name is Adam Penenberg, and last night I had the privilege of meeting him. Well, almost.

 

On Wednesday October 3, 2013, I and fellow students of a journalism ethics class watched a screening of Billy Ray’s 2003 film Shattered Glass, which chronicles Penenberg’s (Steve Zahn) diligent examination of “Hack Heaven," an article in The New Republic written by Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen). The article told the story of a 15-year-old boy who had hacked into the network of Jukt Micronics, a large software company that wanted to hire the boy as a security consultant. Penenberg found no proof that the company existed and his investigations led to the revelation that Glass invented the entire story--he built a fake website for Jukt Micronics, printed fake business cards for a source, and had his brother pose as CEO of Jukt Micronics.  Naturally, Glass was fired and was later found guilty of fabricating at least 27 or the 41 stories he wrote for The New Republic.

 

As the film credits began to run, our attention shifted to the real Penenberg, who joined the lecture hall via a web camera to answer questions about the case. 

 

"Staying on topic, is the film factually accurate?" 

 

“I never chased down a Forbes editor into a bathroom” Penenberg said, raising a laugh, but “a lot of the dialogue was taken from tapes and transcripts of the interviews we did with Stephen Glass."

 

Reiterating his shock at Glass’s brazen falsification, Penenberg stressed that responsible journalism goes beyond what is published. Glass's career was at stake and Penenberg explained that “[they] did not take that lightly at all.”

 

The Forbes team had to be "more responsible" in terms of their factual accuracy because at this stage online journalism was young, without the solid reputation enjoyed by print publication. What their research didn’t initially clarify was: did Glass make it up or was he duped? They held off publishing Penenberg’s article until the fabrications were 100% confirmed. 

 

Forbes’ response to the Glass scandal “changed the face of internet journalism,” said Penenberg. Despite skepticism in the late 90s, they were able to show that regardless of the platform or medium, “what really matters is the quality of the journalism.”

 

Penenberg is the hero of this story, but he’s an unsung one. When Shattered Glass premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, he was there on the red carpet, only to be asked by the paparazzi, “who the f**k are you?”

 

Penenberg laughed. "Well, you could argue I’m the reason for the movie."

 

 

 

Adam Penenberg is now a tenured professor of journalism at New York University, has authored several books, and has written for the likes of Fast Company, The New York Times and The Washington Post.