Shattered Glass 2003 Full Movie Online

HD 6.9 94 min

Shattered Glass: A Story of Deception

The Rise and Fall of Stephen Glass

In 1998, Stephen Glass is an associate editor at The New Republic. The youngest and least experienced of the magazine’s staff, Glass enjoys popularity with his colleagues for his entertaining stories. Glass serves under editor Michael Kelly, who holds loyalty with the writers. However, conflict between Kelly and publisher Marty Peretz results in Peretz firing Kelly. Reporter Charles Lane is promoted by Peretz to replace Kelly, despite being disliked by the staff due to his cold reputation.

The Fabricated Story: “Hack Heaven”

Glass writes a story entitled “Hack Heaven” that details a teenage hacker being hired by a large software firm he infiltrated. The story reaches Forbes Digital Tool, where reporter Adam Penenberg finds no corroborating evidence for what Glass described. When contacted by Penenberg about being unable to reach the individuals in his story, Glass provides a number with a Palo Alto area code for the firm that, when dialed, goes immediately to voicemail. Later in the day, Lane receives a brief call from an individual identifying as the firm’s chairman. Glass and Lane also partake in a conference call with the Forbes staff, which further erodes the story’s credibility and prompts Glass to claim he was tricked by his sources.

The Unraveling of Deception

Lane, looking to protect Glass from the Forbes staff, has Glass take him to the convention center where the story took place, but learns that it was closed during the events Glass wrote about. He also finds that the restaurant where the hackers supposedly had dinner afterwards closes in the mid-afternoon. With the story contradicted by this information, Glass tells Lane he only relied on sources for information and falsified his first-hand experiences to improve the story. Lane decides to suspend Glass instead of firing him due to his popularity, but upon discovering Glass’s brother lives in Palo Alto, he realizes Glass had his brother pose as the firm’s chairman. After confronting Glass with this knowledge, Lane re-reads Glass’s previous stories and comes to the realization several were also falsified. With his deception exposed, Glass is fired by Lane.

Consequences and Aftermath

Despite initial pushback, Lane receives support from The New Republic staff for bringing Glass’s deception to light, while the magazine’s attorney questions Glass over which stories of his were fabricated. Closing titles reveal Penenberg’s article on Glass was hailed as a breakthrough for internet journalism, The New Republic determined 27 of Glass’s 41 stories were either partially or completely fabricated, Kelly was killed while covering the Iraq War, Glass earned a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown and wrote a novel paralleling his own life, and Lane joined The Washington Post.