‘This American Life’ Retracts Entire Episode About Working Conditions at Apple Supplier Factory in China
- Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:26pm by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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AP
The weekly public radio program “This American Life” on Friday announced it was retracting its entire story about the working conditions in an Apple supplier factory in China.
The story, “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory,” followed actor and writer Mike Daisey’s visit to the Foxconn factory where his iPhone was made and the poor working conditions he supposedly encountered there. Adapted from Daisey’s one-man theatrical show, “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” the story made headlines when it aired in January and was followed by a wave of coverage about Apple’s working practices.
“We’re horrified to have let something like this onto public radio,” program host Ira Glass said in a blog post. The story “contained significant fabrications. We’re retracting the story because we can’t vouch for its truth.”
The episode, which the show said was the single most popular podcast in the history of “This American Life,” featured Daisey’s account of meeting mistreated workers, relying on a translator to communicate with them. In a later interview, the blog post said, an NPR correspondent for a separate radio program spoke with the translator, who disputed much of what Daisey had said.
The exact discrepancies will be detailed during the show’s next program, where it will spend a full hour on the retraction:
Some of the falsehoods found in Daisey’s monologue are small ones: the number of factories Daisey visited in China, for instance, and the number of workers he spoke with. Others are large. In his monologue he claims to have met a group of workers who were poisoned on an iPhone assembly line by a chemical called n-hexane. Apple’s audits of its suppliers show that an incident like this occurred in a factory in China, but the factory wasn’t located in Shenzhen, where Daisey visited.
[...]
Daisey‘s interpreter Cathy also disputes two of the most dramatic moments in Daisey’s story: that he met underage workers at Foxconn, and that a man with a mangled hand was injured at Foxconn making iPads (and that Daisey’s iPad was the first one he ever saw in operation). Daisey says in his monologue:
He’s never actually seen one on, this thing that took his hand. I turn it on, unlock the screen, and pass it to him. He takes it. The icons flare into view, and he strokes the screen with his ruined hand, and the icons slide back and forth. And he says something to Cathy, and Cathy says, “he says it’s a kind of magic.”
Cathy Lee tells [NPR's "Marketplace" correspondent Rob] Schmitz that nothing of the sort occurred.
Responding to the decision by “This American Life” to retract the episode, Daisey said he stands by his work and that is show “is a theatrical piece”:
What I do is not journalism. The tools of the theater are not the same as the tools of journalism. For this reason, I regret that I allowed THIS AMERICAN LIFE to air an excerpt from my monologue. THIS AMERICAN LIFE is essentially a journalistic - not a theatrical - enterprise, and as such it operates under a different set of rules and expectations. But this is my only regret. I am proud that my work seems to have sparked a growing storm of attention and concern over the often appalling conditions under which many of the high-tech products we love so much are assembled in China.
The New York Times detailed some of the circumstances surrounding the original Jan. 6 broadcast:
Mr. Glass acknowledged the risk inherent in repurposing a monologue. “When I saw Mike Daisey perform this story on stage, when I left the theater I had a lot of questions,” he told listeners. “I mean, he’s not a reporter, and I wondered, did he get it right? And so we’ve actually spent a few weeks checking everything that he says in his show.”
Over a dozen people were contacted in the fact-checking process, Mr. Glass said, including “journalists who cover these factories, people who work with the electronics industry in China, activists, labor groups.”
And “nobody,” he said, “seemed very surprised” by the working conditions described by Mr. Daisey.
In the end, Glass said Friday, “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.”
“That doesn‘t excuse the fact that we never should’ve put this on the air. In the end, this was our mistake.”
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Comments (60)
DSTSS2010
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 11:01pmIs Dan Rather at NPR? Who’d a thunk it!
Report Post »philipzhao
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 10:18pmMen ! This are the choices we have here (Taiwan) when you shop for a 42-inch flat screen TV==
1. Sony made in Japan==NT$200,000 ( present conversion rate= USD 1.00=NT$29.00)
2 Sony made in China==NT$150,000
3. Taiwan brandname made in Taiwan==NT$40,000
4. Taiwan brand made in China=======NT $30,000
5. China brandname made in China====NT$20,000
6. US brands made in China=========NT$25,000
7, US brands made in other Southeast countries==18,000
Well, get what you pay for !!!!
Report Post »MCDAVE
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 9:50pmI believe all these companies that went to China are going to be nationalized by China…You can’t go to a communist country to do business ,you can’t trust them…The losses for these companies will be huge..
Report Post »Vickie Dhaene
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 12:28pmIn my opinion they would deserve it. Bring manufacturing back home. Problem is they can’t afford the union wages or government regulation here. They need to be “OCCUPIED” Greed only breeds Evil and Evil deserves Evil.
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 9:37pmThey most likelly will at some point, it won’t be a big loss though. It costs next to nothing to set up and operate there, that’s why those companies set up facilities there. China can’t nationalize the company, all they can do is steal the assets they actually have in the country. For most companies that is limited to a single manufacturing plant.
The only ones that would be really hurt by it if they lost all thier chinese assets would be franchise chains like McDonalds that would lose a massive chunk of their revenue from losing a market consisting of several billion people.
Report Post »ehbardin
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 9:43pmTo BICUPID,\
Report Post »Are you serious, or insane?
dontbotherme
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 9:34pmHuh. A story based on lies has been removed. Maybe it should have been vetted better beforehand.
Report Post »TAXEVERYONE
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 8:04amMaybe Obama should be removed also.
Report Post »SpaceCoyote
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 8:46pmTrue or not, the thought of these super factory“towns” like FOXCONN reeks of the factory settings in Huxley’s Brave New World.
Report Post »SpaceCoyote
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 8:40pmIn summary, we cant be having bad stories about Apple factories with the new i-pads release. Don’t want to feel guilt ridden while standing in line at the store to buy one. Even if all the stories are false the very thought of these super factory “communities” reeks of the factories in Huxley’s Brave New World.
Report Post »geonj
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 8:34pman inconvienient truth. if apple cared, it would give up some profits and build here. but first you need a favorable corporate climate here.
Report Post »kaydeebeau
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 11:01pmIf people cared about what really was true and mattered, there would be little market for an ipad / iphone etc Cake and circuses people – WAKE UP!!!!
Report Post »swenk
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 8:27pmThe 1% wins!! NPR is skulks off with tail between legs…
Report Post »RightThinking1
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 8:27pmIra Glass? NPR? This American Life?
Report Post »It has NEVER been anything but collective BS.
bikerr
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 7:11pm“We’re retracting the story because we can’t vouch for its truth.”—-If public radio applied this to all their stories, we taxpayers would start seeing our money not being spent. They would have to shut it down.Where was this “policy” when the 2008 elections were going on?…..Wait ,I know the answer, Hope and Change!.We have to pass the bill to see what’s in the bill? Where was “We’re retracting the story because we can’t vouch for its truth.” Obama care cost is now shown to be Doubled from what they first said. Where was “We’re retracting the story because we can’t vouch for its truth.” on and on with just about everything the Obama people said. Also I still find it hilarious that spell check doesn’t see Obama as a word!. It brings up some funny suggestions.
Report Post »kevinj319
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 6:32pmWell, NPR has 17 listeners, and all of them are asleep, so no harm done really.
Report Post »Berbel73
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 6:15pmI am in total shock that NPR would allow one if its programs to air something without first fact checking it… Well… OK not really.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 6:25pmThe U.S. government FORCED, through coercion, businesses to vacate domestic production and manufacturing in an effort to ‘redistribute wealth.’ At the time, it wasn’t referred to in that context. Today, the pretext of “cheaper production costs” has vaporized.
It was cheaper to build facilities, deal with pollutants, nearly ZERO regulations, employees could be paid a tiny fraction of an Americans wage (thanks to unions) and STILL be one of the best paid people working in those regions.
You may call this exploitation. But it isn’t. Earnings disparities between the U.S. and global counterparts exist for a multitude of reasons. To ignore them “IS” foolish or ignorant.
That being said, the price of products doesn’t decrease by that difference. Demand “IS” demand. And costs that go down increase profits. Period. You don’t have to be a degreed economist to understand that. You just have to be willing to accept it.
Report Post »BeingThere
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 6:09pmIf they were treating the Chinese workers fairly then we would be able to make iPhones here. This is legalized slavery and that’s a fact!!
Report Post »Beckofile
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 7:01pmBut your Iphone would cost $5000 if made here under union rules.
Report Post »From Virginia
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 7:26pmNo it’s not. The people paid in China probably are paid highly for the region and have a good quality of life. If they were produced here it would take decades for the price to fall so the average American could buy one thanks to stupid Union wages and rules.
Report Post »BeingThere
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 8:25pmBS! Move to China if you think they have it so great! Morons!
Report Post »capitalizmwrks
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 9:43pm@BEINGTHERE
Report Post »Quit buying Chinese made products if you think your making there lives so much worse. But before you do that, ask yourself this- were do they get money to survive if no one buys their products? From what I understand, they’re grateful for the work we send to them, otherwise their government would just “dispose of all the excess people”. And before you jump out of your panties and think I believe all work should be sent to China…I’m very much pro American Made. If you want to go chat with President Who about the unfairness of their economy compared to ours, be my guest! You keep voting in your boyfriend Obama and it will be us making iphones for china.
CptStubbing
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 10:42pmChina is awesome. Quit being a xenophobe. When I was in China, I made $8 a day. And that was a lot of money, I pretty much just wasted it, because I didn’t need that much. I could have lived easily off $4 a day and still been living good. My favorite meal cost me a quarter. An entire outfit in a department store cost me, maybe $4. I had a 3 piece suit tailor made for $20. And I guarantee I was being ripped off, because I never haggled. Our cost of living is through the roof, theirs isn’t. Perhaps if you knew what you were talking about instead of just spouting off nonsense, you wouldn’t need so many people to correct you.
Report Post »BeingThere
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 2:47amEven though I have the book, I still don’t argue with idiots!
Report Post »megapotamus
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 1:14pmThey can quit. That ain’t slavery. I’m sick of stupid crap like this over and over and over.
Report Post »Atlanta Media Guy
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 5:34pmHow is it that people can try to destroy companies with lies, and now a radio show is having to retract an entire story, because their editors didn’t vet it? I think the excuse “He lied to me” is very weak. Sound familiar anyone? Is anyone practicing decent journalism anymore? Everything has a spin, the libs have a major hold on media and all the citizens can do is sit and try to find out if what they are watching is fact or fiction. Just like this “war on women”. The only people I see trying to coordinate this war are Democrats and the Republicans they’re always on their heels trying to react to the silly untruths and mis-statements of liberals.
Report Post »goofyfoot2001
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 6:04pmYep and if he’s not even a reporter then why air the story as such? They didn’t know he was just another Michael Moore?
Report Post »Kaoscontrol
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 5:32pmI’ll give you my iPad when you take it from my cold, dead hands!
Report Post »Netsurfer2
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 5:31pmIt’s nothing but greed! Ever since they started making things in China, the fat cats have gotten rich off of it and blame Americans for buying into it. We could not afford to buy it if it were made in America! But our corporations have turned worldly without really caring whether we are human beings! Now that the Dragon has waken up (China). You can say hello to the high costs here in America! We pay more for oil because they demand even more of the resources! It’s a two way street folks! We pay one way or another!
I won’t buy anything of Apple from now on, because I don’t believe it is good for “my environment”. In fact I will go one step further and buy from the other companies! I am so sick of everyone saying they are the ones that can make the best products! I tend not to agree! Everyone has that capability!
Yeah, you don‘t see much for viruses because you don’t see much for programmers doing for apple products! Go fish! You can shove your high prices, because I am not buying into it!
Report Post »vehoae
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 5:00pmAh yes – our tax dollars hard at work at PBS.
Lord, come quickly.
Report Post »Kaoscontrol
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 5:34pmAhh yes. And this is the ONLY time PBS ran a story based on lies and fabrications…
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:59pmSo in this country, we have a teen unemployment problem, in China, they have no unemployment problem, and I bet adolescent crime is way down. So, what’s the bad side of this? I bet if you made all these kids work until they are 10, then give them a choice, school, or back to the factories, we would have the smartest kids in the world, they would all have perfect attendance, and we get cheap labor. Also, isn’t China our landlord anyway? And don’t even think of crossing Apple, look at what they dd to Stan on South Park.
Report Post »josh345
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 5:21pmMAKE KIDS WORK UNTIL THEY ARE 10??!?!?! Wow, you really seem to be a kind-hearted soul. For once, I’m not surprised that people think bad things about Conservatives: I’m afraid that you and others like you are the reason.
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 5:40pmCome on, making electronics takes tiny hands, plus what the heck are kids doing today, sitting around playing video games. This will keep them busy, and motivate them to think about their life. Do you really think China is kicking our butt economically because their kids are home playing Mario Brothers? They got their kids working in factories and they are pushing the heck out of their kids to do good in school. And Chinese aren’t conservative, they are communist.
Report Post »crazyrightwingmom
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 6:22pmDarmok…so funny! And some people have no sense of humor. Unfortunately, I have seen pictures of these factories. Bars on the upper windows above the factories where they live so that they cannot kill themselves. They eat, live, at the factory. Bunk beds 3 high in a large room. No talking! This is our competition. So they make money and build bombs. Same old story.
Report Post »2theADDLED
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 9:22pmChina is building what Obama is destroying people just want the The Pursuit of Happyness and a better life no matter what country but it requires work not free handouts.
Report Post »youdidthis
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:58pmoooops…
Report Post »poboy80
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:53pmCommie Commie Commie OUY OUY OUY!!!!!
Report Post »SpeckledPup
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:45pm‘public radio’ …..right there that told us all of it is one huge communist fraud. who cares about apple etc.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:40pmSgt Schultz: ‘I see nothing!’
Report Post »drago
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:39pmWait, public radio aired a story, and someone lied about some, or all of its content? I’m shocked………..sarcasm off………
Report Post »Mark0331
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:34pmStill waiting on the OWS/Left to demand a boycott of this company, corporate greed blah blah blah….doesn’t fit their agenda.. By the way, I don’t mind Apple being in business, I just dont care for their products. But if this was an oil company, they would be on their hit list. No doubt.
Report Post »jds7171
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:43pmThey are not going to boycott apple. They are to busy waiting in line for the new Ipad to come out.
Report Post »Mark0331
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:59pmJDS7171…tell me about it, I do some work in NYC and the drones are in line drooling at the lip for this ipad…it cracks me up when I pass by that place..they look like idiots and do not even realize it…but your right, in line, waiting to buy it…lots of che t-shirts and OWS people there too…I saw the same morons at Zucotti Park protesting..same faces, same smug attitude.
Report Post »Mark0331
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 5:41pmJDS7171…just got word from my boy that there IS a protest at the apple store in nyc…go figure, truth is stranger than fiction…missed it passing by in the early am…got to call it like I see it.
Report Post »2theADDLED
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 9:26pmApple is to whites what Nike is to blacks Go Figure.
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