Shattered Glass Page #11

to get anybody in trouble.

Okay. Okay.

You weren't

at the conference?

No.

You know, I had a description of it

from so many sources,

I thought I had it solid.

Okay?

And I wanted the piece

to have an eyewitness feel to it,

for color... so...

I said I'd been there myself.

And everything

we just told the Forbes guys...?

I'm so sorry, Chuck.

I just panicked.

If you want me to say

that I made it up...

I will.

If that'll help you, I'll say it.

I just want you

to tell me the truth, Steve.

Can you do that?

There might be facets

of this that you're not considering.

- Why are you defending him?

- Nobody's defending him, Chuck.

- Of course you're defending him.

- He's a kid.

He doctored his notes, Lew.

Just consider that for a second.

You know?

He sat down,

and he hand-wrote

a bunch of phony quotes

and handed them in

as source material for the fact-check.

- Doesn't that offend you?

- Of course it does.

He also lied to his editor.

That's supposed to offend you too.

He's a confused, distraught kid

obviously, Chuck.

So suspend him for a couple of months,

but let's not bury him.

Suspend him...

There are also political considerations

to take into account here...

the rest of the staff,

the way they feel about him.

- I already know all that.

- What I'm saying is,

if you fire him,

some of these people will leave.

I don't know if we'd still have

a magazine at the end of the day.

- Hey, Caitlin.

- Not now, David.

- How's he doing?

- Well, he's a wreck, of course.

- I want him in here, Caitlin.

- He's too scared to come in here.

He thinks you want to destroy him.

He knows what he did was horrible.

He knows how badly

he messed up.

The part he's most upset about

is lying to you, Chuck.

Because he knows you took it

as a sign of disrespect

instead of a panic move,

which is what it was.

Think about the workload he's been

carrying... all this and classes.

He hasn't slept more than two hours

in nine months.

So he got a little sloppy and he lied to

cover his tracks.

- He's sick about it.

- Caitlin...

the building he described,

it doesn't even exist.

He just made it up.

So...?

Obviously

he needs some help.

- He needs help.

- Just get him in here.

You can't fire him.

I don't think he'll survive.

You don't understand,

we're all he has.

You can't fire him,

Chuck.

Thanks, Lew.

Would you guys excuse us

for a minute?

...watered-down stock,

and you know, within...

Steve!

What are you doing here?

I'm so dead.

I mean, I'm over.

Nobody's ever going

to hire me again, are they?

I was so sloppy,

trusting my sources like that.

And then lying about it.

And to Chuck,

of all people...

I mean, the one guy

who's hated me all along.

I'm sure that none of this

is personal.

No?

Chuck keeps a list

in his head...

everybody who's

a "Michael Kelly" person.

A couple of times,

I said some things

I shouldn't have said...

about you.

So now I'm on it.

That's why he's so set

on killing me now.

Well, I have to tell you, Steve,

he's within his rights.

The things you did

were fireable offenses.

I know, I'm not saying

that they weren't.

I did some terrible,

terrible things.

But believe me, Michael,

Chuck doesn't care about any of it.

It's my loyalty to you

that he's punishing me for.

I'm such an idiot.

Now who's going to hire me?

Steve, I have to ask you

something.

Did you ever "cook" a piece

when I was your boss?

Did you ever lie to me?

The "Young Conservatives" piece,

the mini-bottles?

Was that true?

- Hello.

- Chuck, it's David Bach.

I'm really sorry to bother you at night,

but it seemed important.

It's fine.

Is there a problem?

Well, I don't know.

I just got off the phone

with Stephen.

He sounds horrible.

Did you suspend him,

Chuck?

David,

what is the problem?

He asked me if I would drive him

out to Dulles later tonight.

He said he wasn't sure

he'd be safe driving by himself.

I just thought I should

draw your attention to that.

Did he say

where he was going?

Yeah, he said he'd be staying

with his family for a while.

Rate this script:4.0 / 1 vote