For the Scottish football (soccer) player, see Stephen Glass (footballer)'
Stephen Glass (born 1972) was an American reporter for The New Republic who was fired for fabricating articles, quotes, sources and events. The story of Glass's downfall is told in the 2003 film Shattered Glass.

Early years
Glass was fired from TNR in May 1998, at the age of 25, after it was discovered that he had committed numerous cases of journalistic fraud. The story that triggered these events appeared in the May 18, 1998 issue. It was called "Hack Heaven", and concerned a supposed 15-year-old computer hacker, who was purportedly hired to work for a large company as an information security consultant after breaking into their computer system and exposing its weaknesses. Like several of Stephen Glass's previous stories, "Hack Heaven" depicted events that were almost cinematic in their vividness and that were told from a first-person perspective implying Glass was there as the action took place. The article opened as follows:
Ian Restil, a 15-year-old computer hacker who looks like an even more adolescent version of Bill Gates, is throwing a tantrum. "I want more money. I want a Miata. I want a trip to Disney World. I want X-Man comic [book] number one. I want a lifetime subscription to Playboy, and throw in Penthouse. Show me the money! Show me the money!"...
Across the table, executives from a California software firm called Jukt Micronics are listening – and trying ever so delicately to oblige. "Excuse me, sir," one of the suits says, tentatively, to the pimply teenager. "Excuse me. Pardon me for interrupting you, sir. We can arrange more money for you ..."
Soon after the publication of "Hack Heaven," Forbes.com reporter Adam Penenberg presented evidence to The New Republic that the story was fabricated and that the company depicted in it did not exist. An internal review by TNR confirmed this, and found that Glass had created a shell website and voice mail account for the company in order to deceive TNR's fact checkers. Some commentators of the scandal considered it to be a great coming-of-age achievement for online journalism. Three other magazines, Rolling Stone, George and Harper's, to which Glass contributed also reviewed his work. Rolling Stone and Harper's found the material generally accurate but had no way of verifying information from Glass' anonymous sources. George discovered Glass fabricated quotes in a profile piece and apologized to the article's subject, Vernon Jordan, a Clinton advisor.

New Republic scandal
A movie presenting a stylized view of Glass's rise and fall, titled Shattered Glass, was released in 2003. The screenplay aimed to portray both the high-pressure world of national political journalism and the inside workings of a national political magazine. Hayden Christensen starred as Glass.

Shattered Glass
Stephen Glass completed his law degree at Georgetown University Law Center after being fired by TNR, and passed the written portion of the New York state bar exam, but has not yet been admitted to the bar. In 2003, he began appearing on television to promote his "biographical novel" The Fabulist. "I wanted them to think I was a good journalist, a good person. I wanted them to love the story so they would love me", he told Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes in an interview, which was included as a special feature for the DVD edition of Shattered Glass. Also in 2003, Glass briefly returned to journalism, writing an article about Canadian marijuana laws for Rolling Stone.