The California Bar tries to bar Glass
Stephen Glass, notorious liar of “Shattered Glass” and TNR journalistic fame, is a Georgetown Law School graduate and paralegal who is currently fighting to be admitted to the California Bar. He passed the Bar Exam there a few years ago, but the Committee of Bar Examiners “judged him morally unfit for his new profession.”
If you look at the comments section of the article about Glass’s efforts (910 comments and counting as of this writing), the jokes are coming a mile a minute. The gist of the humor goes like this: Lawyer, liar? He’d be perfect!
And several commenters have highlighted the following highly ironic sentence in the article, a statement by California Bar spokesperson Rachel Grunber that gets a lot of laughs:
Law and journalism “share common core values ”” trust, candor, veracity, honor, respect for others…He violated every one of them.”
As for Glass—I would not now, nor ever, believe a word the man says. His m.o. was not just to lie, but to lie egregiously, blatantly, and repeatedly; to create an entire world of lies to back up his other lies though “research” to fool the magazine’s fact-checkers; to involve his brother in his lies; and to get everyone else around him to defend and feel sorry for him when he was accused.
Remorse was really not in this guy’s vocabulary, but lying about having remorse was. In other words, a sociopath.
But don’t take my word for it. Charles Lane, TNR‘s head editor who finally figured out what Glass was doing and blew the whistle on him, had this to say afterward about Glass’s personality:
We [at TNR] extended normal human trust to someone who basically lacked a conscience… We busy, friendly folks, were no match for such a willful deceiver… We thought Glass was interested in our personal lives, or our struggles with work, and we thought it was because he cared. Actually, it was all about sizing us up and searching for vulnerabilities. What we saw as concern was actually contempt.
Not everyone agrees with Lane’s observations, at least not any more. Glass has amassed a great many character witnesses to vouch for his change of heart:
His appeal [against the Bar ruling] included character references from 22 witnesses, including two judges who had employed him, two psychiatrists, and Martin Peretz, who owned The New Republic when Glass’ deception occurred.
In his own statement to the bar, Glass said he was “greatly ashamed and remorseful about my lying” but “forthright and candid about my years of misconduct.”
It’s not that I don’t believe people can reform. They can; it’s not “once a liar, always a liar.” But Glass was—and probably still is—in a particular category of liars who seem conscienceless, although they can fake consciences when it suits them (and always after they are caught). Beware.
It’s encouraging to hear that someone can be too sleazy to be admitted to the bar.
Basically, when a person has been caught lying, the bar is raised for believing that person again, particularly on the subject he had been lying about.
And if the person was caught lying about his own trustworthiness, then it calls just about everything into question, doesn’t it?
neo. Your objections are noted, but I think you missed the point. He is trying to be admitted to the CA bar to practice law.
So, while you are correct as to his worth as a human being, given his current goal, he could be described as “meets industry standards”.
Quote of the YEAR! “Law and journalism “share common core values – trust, candor, veracity, honor, respect for others…”
Long after the other works and days of Rachel Grunber’s life are forgotten, this quote will be remembered.
Long after the other works and days of Rachel Grunber’s life are forgotten, this quote will be remembered.
Good comedy lives forever.
I’m not sure Glass wouldn’t be raising the ethical standards of the California bar.
It is about time that the CalBar finds a backbone and not surrender on this decision. There are certain behaviors that no amount of subsequent good behavior can heal. This is no different than a convicted conman being denied a CPA license. There are plenty of things Glass could do with his JD. Representing clients as a lawyer is NOT one of them.
There are plenty of things Glass could do with his JD.
Not all of which are physically possible, earnest exhortations by onlookers to the contrary.
His jorno career ended in 1998, and he got his JD from Georgetown in 2000 per Wiki, so he was already in his legal education when TNR fired him. I thus surmise Georgetown, one of our most prestigious law schools, found he would make a fine lawyer, perhaps even a crafty one. as one of our best and brightest. But perhaps in solo practice. California needs a male Gloria Allred.
You’d think he would pursue a career where truth is overrated and the ability to manipulate others is valued- fiction writer (or screenplays/TV writer), lobbyist, Obama speech writer, Congressman…
Libby: Glass tried writing fiction and didn’t do nearly as well as he did as a journalist. It’s ironic, because he wrote good fiction when he was supposed to be writing non-fiction, and when he wrote fiction it was a novel based on what really had happened to him (close to non-fiction). Weird–he did things backwards.
If there were a journalist association with the power the bar association has to kick people out of the profession, there would be many fewer journalists. The entire NYTimes staff would be selling apples to the commuters streaming out of the Bus terminal next door.
Huh, that’s strange that he can’t write fiction well. He should at least try political satire like “Thank You for Smoking”.
Maybe he thrives on being the only one “in” on the big lies, so there’s no thrill in writing that everyone knows is fiction. And if that’s the case, then he really shouldn’t be practicing law.
I practiced law for a good while, and I like to think I do so ethically, in both the legal sense and moral sense. That is a big reason I no longer practice, as too many lawyers forget they are moral beings as well as professional beings; the profession becomes everything to them.
Another reason I don’t practice any longer is displayed in the comments here. I try to lead an honorable life as well as a decent one. When the rest of the world thinks you are an inherently dishonorale, indecent, lying, mercenary sleaze bag, leading an honorable decent life is overbearing.
Mind, 99% of practicing lawyers did give the rest of us a bad name.
Thanks for that Terry Hoover, but it’s sad, terribly sad, that this is the truth. The attorney I work for is one of the most honorable and kindest men I’ve ever met. And he has only, recently, despite a huge reservoir of good will towards all men, began to notice and comment on the deterioration. He’s been in practice for 30 years and looks forward to retirement.
Why doesn’t Glass circumvent the Bar Association and pursue some other career for which he is well suited – Democrat Congressman, Obama Administration Cabinet member, DNC chairman, something like that?
He could be hired at the DOJ.
He could be hired at the DOJ.
Looks like the AG position may finally, at long last, be about to open up. Choosing Glass would make for a seamless transition.
Never seen or heard about a single repented sociopath. It is life-long occupation.