Fact1: Stephen Glass is reporter at New Republic, Fact2: editor is revered by magazine 's young staff, Fact3: David Keene questions Glass 's description of minibars and drunken antics of Young Republicans at convention, Fact4: magazine publishes entertaining story by Glass titled Hack Heaven about teenage hacker named Ian Restil, Fact5: hotel 's convention room was not open day
Output: Stephen Glass is a reporter at The New Republic, where he has made a name for himself for writing colorful stories. His editor, Michael Kelly, is revered by the magazines young staff. When David Keene at the time Chairman of the American Conservative Union questions Glasss description of minibars and the drunken antics of Young Republicans at a convention, Kelly backs his reporter when Glass admits to one mistake but says the rest is true. Kelly is fired after he stands up to his boss Marty Peretz on an unrelated personnel issue, and fellow writer Charles Chuck Lane is promoted to replace him. The magazine publishes an entertaining story by Glass titled Hack Heaven about a teenage hacker named Ian Restil who was given a lucrative job at software company Jukt Micronics after hacking into its computer system. After the article is published, Adam Penenberg, a reporter at Forbes Digital Tool, begins researching the story in order to discover how Glass scooped everyone else. Penenberg is unable to uncover any corroborating evidence for Glasss story. Questioned by the Forbes reporter, Lane becomes suspicious when Glass cannot provide sources for his article and when the few pieces of concrete evidence are discovered to be an amateurish website representing Jukt Micronics and a Palo Alto phone number where every call goes directly to voicemail. Penenberg and his colleague, Andy Fox, can find no proof Jukt or an Ian Restil even exist. Lane drives Glass to a hotel where the hacker convention supposedly took place. Despite frantic attempts at spin from Glass, Lane discovers that the hotels convention room was not open the day the convention supposedly took place and that the restaurant where they supposedly ate dinner closes in the early afternoon. Glass finally admits to Lane that he wasnt actually at the hacker convention, but relied on sources for information. Lane is outraged, but proceeds cautiously while seeking the truth. He suspends Glass, earning him the enmity of staff reporters, who all are fond of Glass. Caitlin Avey, a writer at the magazine, is so angered by Lanes actions that she considers quitting. When a colleague calls Lane to express concern for Glasss state of mind, he also reveals that Glass has a brother in Palo Alto. Lane realizes the brother must have posed as the president of Jukt Micronics on the day he returned Lanes phone call. Glass pleads for another chance, but Lane orders him out of the office and takes his security access card. Searching through back issues of The New Republic, Lane realizes that much of Glasss previous work was falsified. When an emotional Glass returns, Lane fires him. Caitlin accuses Lane of wanting to get rid of everyone who was loyal to Michael Kelly, but he challenges her to act like the good reporter she is. He reminds her that half of the falsified stories were published on Kellys watch and that the entire staff will have to apologize to their readers for allowing Glass to continue to hand in fictitious stories. The following day, a receptionist wryly remarks to Lane that all this trouble could have been averted if the stories required photographs. Lane discovers the staff has written an apology to their readers. They spontaneously applaud their editor, signifying their unity. At a meeting with Glass and a lawyer, Glass tacitly admits that 27 of the 41 articles he wrote for The New Republic were fabricated in whole or in part. An epilogue reveals that Glass decided to complete law school, and wrote a novel called The Fabulist about a reporter who fabricates his stories.