Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Stephen Glass, Lying Magazine Writer, Asks for Forgiveness

Stephen Glass built his entire meteoric career ascension as a magazine writer on lies and fabrications, making up too-good-to-be-true stories that sold copies but, ultimately, led to his downfall. In 1998, Glass was exposed for his lies, but now he is asking for forgiveness as he tries to transition from life as a disgraced writer to…wait for it…a lawyer. That he wants to move from member of the press to lawyer is perhaps indicative of his character, with those two professions being among the more mistrusted in general. Or perhaps it’s just that his mind works in such a way that those professions work best for him.

Glass graduated from Georgetown Law School in 2000 and currently works as a paralegal for a law firm in Beverly Hills. He now wants to be a lawyer, but he won’t be able to unless he can be admitted to the bar. Given his checkered past, this could be a problem. Glass has already passed the bar exam in both New York and California, but he’ll have to place himself at the mercy of the bar to make his current dream come true.

Notes Arnold Siegel, an ethics professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, "Maybe there are certain types of behavior you never get over. The bar has a fairly compassionate view. They do believe in rehabilitation." Adam Penenberg, who first outed Glass back in 1998, had a different view, noting "When I first learned of Glass' quest to join the legal profession, I thought, Christ, it's been 13 years. And, since when does lying disqualify someone from being a lawyer? Let the guy earn a living. Leave it to Glass to disgrace himself in one mistrusted profession only to apply to another."

No comments:

Post a Comment