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Lawyer, lawyer, pants on fire
Disgraced journalist Stephen Glass has been judged to be too much of a liar to be a lawyer...
Leanne Mezrani
Folklaw reported last year that proceedings had commenced in the Californian Supreme Court to ascertain whether Glass has the “moral character” to practise law.
Readers will remember Glass as The New Republic journalist who made up facts in dozens of magazine articles in the late 1990s.
Glass told the court that he had changed his ways; that he could be trusted. But the court didn’t buy it.
In its decision to deny Glass admission to the California State Bar, the court claimed that he hadn’t completely come clean and that his “lack of integrity and forthrightness” continued even during his hearings before the court, CNN reported.
“We find it particularly disturbing that at the hearing Glass persisted in claiming that he had made a good faith effort to work with the magazines that published his works,” the court stated.
“He went through many verbal twists and turns at the hearing to avoid acknowledging the obvious fact that in his New York bar application he exaggerated his level of assistance to the magazines that published his fabrications.”
Glass’ verbal artistry may have impressed some advocates, but Folklaw is still astonished that the scandal-ridden liar decided to lie about his lies in his bid to convince the court he was no longer a liar...
It has been 15 years since Glass was exposed for his fabrications. In 1998, The New Republic editors discovered that he made up quotes, sources and even entire events in articles he wrote over three years for the magazine.
While working as a journalist, Glass also attended law school and graduated in 2000.
Folklaw is heartened that a standard of honesty – albeit a low one – has been set in the US, but we are also reminded of why lawyers and journalists are consistently rated among the least-trusted professions...
