But never mind the rigors of our fact-checking process. Still, the reason Glass got away with what he did for as long as he did has little to do with the empty and grandiose facts he cited. Instead, consider the ideas he presented. It's not ironic but simply galling that over the years a number of The New Republic 's readers pointed out just how facile both Glass' arguments and his supporting evidence appeared to be. That he might have invented and then ridiculed characters who mouthed heresy is understandable.
Every elite needs straw men.
But as fiction, Glass' stories come across as propaganda, predictably reheating the same tired rhetoric that resides in the rest of the magazine. As journalism, his stories gave credence to the assumptions his editors and readers already wanted to believe. Searches of standard databases, such as Lexis-Nexis, and reference books, such as the Encyclopedia of Associations , turned up nothing. Matthew Budman, author of a trade publication article about Successories that Glass appears to have based his story on, says he thinks the group must not exist. The CEO of Successories also said he is unfamiliar with the group.