As a former editor of The New Republic Andrew Sullivan who employed Glass as his personal assistant for a year in the time before the events of the movie take place thinks it hits many things spot on. He says it, "elevated the story into a tale of ambition and deceit that gives perspective to a lot of Washington lives and careers. It was chastening, because it was so close to the bone. And remarkably, it didn't glamorize Steve. It made him seem like the self-centered traitor he was."

That is probably something that is often lost on those who simply consume the content of newspapers and magazines. Certainly those who read about President Bush's trip to Baghdad were less concerned with the media secrecy than with the story itself. But it is not unusual to that the press should project its own perspectives and echo-chamber reflections ahead of the news. Inside the media there exists an entire ecosystem where there are stars, elder statesman, good guys, and bad guys.

Perhaps the movie overstates all of this. Slate's David Plotz suggests that the movie makes it, "seem more important to American life than it is. As a result, Shattered Glass misses the fundamentally ironic, self-mocking culture of the magazine: With a few notable exceptions, Washington journalists are less pompous than Shattered Glass suggests."

Except that in spite of the supposedly rarely found pompousness of Washington insiders failed to act on many warning signs on Glass's work as chronicled in this review by The Weekly Standard's Jonathon V. Last. "There is a particular type of journalist who spurns the input of outsiders and believes that there is no truth beyond his magazine's horizon," writes Last. "The impulse to dismiss those who argue with our words as acting out of political disagreement or bad faith is a failing many of us share. It is an impulse which must be fought."

Now, the movie version of the story of Stephen Glass offers no real proof, or indeed should, that journalists have as a profession something to apologize for. In fact they can lay claim to the holy characters that do uncover the Glass affair. There are always a few bad apples in the bunch. What this story and well-crafted film do is twofold. It cautions journalists against doing what Glass was so eager to do at the same time as reaffirming that the noble editor who helps to figure out Glass's lies is what is right with journalism.