I happened upon Shattered Glass while cable grazing the other day. I had seen it before, and it was still good the second time around. Hayden Christensen never worked for me as Anakin Skywalker; but I liked him as the endearing, but cloying, Stephen Glass.

One of the takeaways from the movie is just how easy it is to subvert the fact checking process. Glass fabricated the background to many, perhaps most, of his published stories. And the fact checking process didn’t find a thing.

It also illustrated our willingness to trust our own. How easily we look away and accept favorable spin. We believe because we want to believe.

Which leads me to our title: Who will guard the guardians? It is far too common for insiders to condone the failings and foibles of their own. Whether it is truly independent auditors for business or the separation of powers in government, we need outsiders as a check on the power of the insiders.