This American Life on Friday retracted its searing exposé of conditions at Foxconn factories that manufacture Apple gear. The statement reverses damage to one of the most-respected brands in the world.
Acclaimed Public Radio International program This American Life has retracted an entire episode about working conditions inside Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer that builds much of Apple’s most popular hardware, after learning that a major contributing source “partially fabricated” information about his visit to the factories.
In the episode, PRI aired a monologue from Mike Daisey, a self-proclaimed performer whose one-man show, The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, detailed alarming labor practices which he claimed to witness during his time visiting Foxconn. Among the many facts Daisey fabricated, according to PRI, were the number of Foxconn factories he visited, the number of workers he spoke with, as well as a meeting with a number of workers who claimed to have been poisoned by chemicals used on iPhone assembly lines.
"Daisey lied to me and to This American Life producer Brian Reed during the fact checking we did on the story, before it was broadcast," Ira Glass, host of the show, said in a blog post Friday quoted by Wired. (I can't currently access the post. I expect it was overwhelmed by traffic).
I stand by my work. My show is a theatrical piece whose goal is to create a human connection between our gorgeous devices and the brutal circumstances from which they emerge. It uses a combination of fact, memoir, and dramatic license to tell its story, and I believe it does so with integrity.
Apple is going to come off smelling like a rose. Its brand has been restored. The only thing most people will remember about this story in six months is "Problems at the Apple factory? I remember that. That was faked."
That's a real shame, because, as Daisey notes, reports by the New York Times and human rights organizations corroborate that working conditions in China's factories are awful. The problem is not limited to Apple. Every electronics brand and consumer is complicit, you and me included.
Please post links and updates on this breaking story in the comment thread below. And let us know what you think. Will Apple's brand suffer any long-term damage? How about This American Life, also a well-respected brand -- will it be able to recover?
I think we have come to a sorry state of affairs where most serious of the news is ridiculed & made fun of. People then tend to take serious issues lightly. And this is not good for the future of society. Some of these issues that we enjoy today will haunt our future generations.
John Barnes - Encouraging everyone to stay home on the couch, being above it all and feeling smugly superior, is not.
That's the danger. Both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are very serious programs, in the manner you describe. And studies show people who rely on them for news are actually better-informed than people who rely on some other, more mainstream channels.
However, the problem with those shows is that they reduce the universe into people being ridiculed, and people doing the ridiculing. Everything that doesn't fit into one of those two categories is invisible, it doesn't exist.
As I'm sure you're already aware, writers love to be on the Colbert Report. He's like Oprah in his ability to make sales for books. And writers get coached on how to be on his show. Basically, a writer will be on for three minutes (or about that), will be able to spend about 30 seconds to a minute talking seriously about his book, and then for the rest of the time the writer is going to just sit there and be a target for Colbert's ridicule. The best course for the writer is to just smile and nod during that part, occasionally throwing out comments which Colbert will pounce on.
None of this is the fault of either Colbert or Stewart, who are doing great work. It's other forms of journalism that are lacking.
Ridicule can be a perfectly serious activity. We Americans have had some presidents who have been little better than drooling cretins, for example, and forcing people to acknowledge it via laughter is about as serious a function as you can have. Aristophanes was primarily a political commentator -- the main voice of the conservative democrats (as opposed to the pro-aristocratic pro-Sparta conservatives and the radical demagogues) of ancient Athens, and funny as his stuff was, its purpose is clear in every line -- he was to bring down the people he thought were menaces to his country. Bastiat even managed to be, of all things, an economic humorist (while also being the most effective free-marketer of his day in French politics).
It's not the laughter but the absence of seriousness that is the problem. Discrediting and humiliating people in power, or people trying to attain power, is a serious purpose. Encouraging everyone to stay home on the couch, being above it all and feeling smugly superior, is not.
Shows like The Daily Show and Colbert Report are terrific, but they also contribute to an environment where everything is and should be held up to ridicule.
@John, I agree with you. With the rapid advent of media during recent times, the distinction has surely blurred. It's quite evident from the way news are presented over here now and talk shows conducted. Every media person has or pretends to have become investigative, and yet every media person tries to add entertainment value to retain and increase viewership.
Reporters becoming more like entertainers? Oh, yes. A prime example would be all the celebrity gossip and reality-show updates that pass for news nowadays.
As for entertainers becoming more like journalists, the prime examples there are Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Rush Limbaugh.
Oh, it's always been blurring -- and sharpening. That's what a contested distinction is. The distinction between people who are supposed to preserve the distinction (e.g. reporters), and people who are supposed to blur it (e.g. entertainers) is what's blurring.
@Waqas, You're right! Social media can be very well used to further various causes and responsible journalism through the use of social media can help bring usch issues to light and raise awareness for a solution. Though we are far from it right now, but eventually such movements can take root as the reach and impact of online media is unlimiting.
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