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Subscribe to RSSAn episode of the popular weekly radio program "This American Life" that painted a damaging picture of life for employees at factories that make Apple products in China contained "significant fabrications," the show said Friday.
"We're horrified to have let something like this onto public radio," Ira Glass, the public radio show's executive producer and host, said in a blog post. "Our program adheres to the same journalistic standards as the other national shows, and in this case, we did not live up to those standards."
The program retracted the Jan. 6 piece that is believed to have started the recent spate of articles examining Apple manufacturer Foxconn.
The 39-minute piece received 888,000 downloads and became its most popular podcast, according to the show. The story detailed what it said were extremely poor working conditions of Chinese workers making products such as iPhones and iPads at factories owned by a company called Foxconn, which also manufactures products for other electronics giants.
Apple protesters hit stores, hack Foxconn
The piece vaulted Mike Daisey into the role of Apple's chief critic, the post on NPR.org said, and also inspired a Change.org petition that collected more than 250,000 signatures demanding that Apple better the working conditions at the factories. According to the statement, the program did not commission the piece, but grabbed it from Daisey's one-man performance, "The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs."
In a press release, the show said it first learned Daisey had fabricated parts of his story when the public radio program "Marketplace" tracked down Daisey's interpreter, who disputed parts of Daisey's monologue.
"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," Glass said. "That doesn't excuse the fact that we never should've put this on the air. In the end, this was our mistake." 'This American Life' will devote its entire program this weekend to detailing the errors in the story," the press release said.
During fact checking before the broadcast of Daisey's story, staffers asked Daisey for this interpreter's contact information. According to the press release, Daisey told them her cell phone didn't work and provided an incorrect name. He said he had no way to reach her.
"At that point, we should've killed the story," Glass said. "But other things Daisey told us about Apple's operations in China checked out, and we saw no reason to doubt him. We didn't think that he was lying to us and to audiences about the details of his story. That was a mistake."
The New York Times also documented the cramped living conditions of Foxconn employees, as well as excessive hours on the job and seven-day workweeks in which employees stand for hours without break. The article included reports of underage employees and workers exposed to deadly chemicals used to build and clean Apple products, documented deadly accidents at the plant and included damning quotes about Apple's ambivalence about working conditions. Other published accounts reported worker suicides at the plant, as well as the very low pay -- $1.78 an hour, according to another report by Business Insider.
According to the press release, Daisey's interpreter, Li Guifen (who goes by the name Cathy Lee professionally when working with westerners) disputed two of the most dramatic moments in Daisey's story: his meeting with underage workers at Foxconn and his reporting on a man with a mangled hand that he allegedly injured at Foxconn making iPads.
In the show airing this weekend, Daisey apologizes for the misrepresentations, according to the press release.
"It was completely wrong for me to have it on your show," he is quoted as telling Glass, "and that's something I deeply regret." He also expressed his regret to "the people who are listening, the audience of 'This American Life,' who know that it is a journalism enterprise, if they feel betrayed."
This article includes reporting by msnbc.com's Becky Bratu.
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Imagine that one of the main guests on a Bill Maher episode is a liar. Hey wait a minute the host is also.
RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A RECOVERING DRUG ADDICT ; we call him the ox-cotin king. his radio show came on one day, and he was sooooooo doped up , until you literally could not make his words out. it sounded like slurring of a man who had been drinking all night. when approached with this episode the next following day , he blamed it on bad radio connection. months latter his maid exposed him , for the drug addict he really is. YOU CAN FIND THAT SLURRISH LIMBAUGH RADIO SHOW ON YOU TUBE. JUDGE THAT RADIO PROGRAM , AND GIVE RUSH THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT. THEN YOU WILL SEE WHY WE CALL HIM THE OXY-COTIN KING
Hannity, ElRushbo, ETAL, fabricate and take out of context everyday, so what is the big deal here, maybe real humans being free of abhorant working conditions in foriegn countries by American Mfg's.
This reminds me of the Greg Mortenson scandal. Both are very compelling stories with out any need for exaggeration.
When I listened to the original piece on Apple and FOXCONN I had my doubts due mostly to the format. It was a format I would describe as "theatrical". But then maybe we would all benefit from a non traditional news delivery method.
I would posit that most of the story is probably true but because the profits of a major corporation were at stake, there must have been unbearable pressure to kill the story or, barring that, to discredit the writer...
Didn't MSN.com run a couple of stories a while back about the Apple factories and people killing themselves, being forced to work 16+ hours and being locked inside the factory so they couldn't leave?
Has anyone stopped to consider that this is publicity for This American Life. Granted, it's negative but how many times have big corporations, politicians, and entertainers spewed apologies and then it's back to business as usual - with more publicity garnered from the infraction? Think about it, they plan to devote their next segment entirely to retracting the falsehoods that were aired previously. By outing their mistake, publicly apologizing for it, then devoting a segment debunking the falsehoods they are guaranteed more record ratings as people tune in to learn the sordid details. The public feeds the gossip mills by their insatiable greed for tales of dirty deeds.
You realize they are not a business right? You understand the idea of public radio? Not trying to be rude, I just don't see that your hypothesis fits.
This is a most unethical breach of trust. This man should be fired & never allowed to work in journalism again. I hope Apple sues the s*** out this guy.
Geeeesh!! With all the crap going on today this guy drums up more crap instead of using his profession to expose some of the real crap!!!
He's not a journalist. As far as I can tell, Daisy is a kind of Rush Limbaugh with a different philosophy.
As far as I can tell:
1) This American Life and their associates discovered the fabrication after the fact when a few individuals (who live or work with China) became suspicious. This is not something that blew up in their face; they uncovered it themselves.
2) The fabricated parts were the man's personal experiences, not the facts that could be checked by calling companies, which they did.
3) They could have just issued the retraction, but instead issued an hour long episode about the retraction and got Mike Daisy back in there to ask him why he lied.
4) In the original episode, they directly tried to challenge things Daisy said that they were doubtful of, including his whole attitude about Chinese workers. It's therefore questionable that they even needed to issue a retraction at all.
All in all, this is far, far more than what most other sites would do to make things right.
Something doesn't smell right here...
I wonder how often Faux Noise apologizes for all its lies?
You suppose Al Gore chimed in here???.....wink wink.....Hey AL, did ya take the Ponzi Money from the Chicago climate exhange and invest in Apple???......hmmmm....hey occupiers, no occupy Gore???.....he INDEED is the one percent...in his case, the TOP of the pyramid.
Notanidiot
I wonder how often Rachel Maddow apologizes for all her lies?
You suppose Al Gore chimed in here???.....wink wink.....Hey AL, did ya take the Ponzi Money from the Chicago climate exhange and invest in Apple???......hmmmm....hey occupiers, no occupy Gore???.....he INDEED is the one percent...in his case, the TOP of the pyramid.
The problems were with two specific interviews-it appears there are many problems at Apple, but the sotry was not vetted 100%. They did the honest thing, and retracted all of it, at least until such time as they can put out a completely credible story.
This never happens on Faux News-they happily make stories up and broadcastthem as truth-but then, considering the ethics of he owners(phone hacking and mass bribery in the UK-and who knows what here), that should surprise no one.
The same crowd defending Bush on oil prices in 08 is now busily excoriating Obama over the same issue, while American oil companies keep prices up by exporting oil, and pocket our corporate welfare.
They do this because as the most profitable industry in AMerica they can afford to buy elections-see Koch Bros. and the Tea Party, ALEC, Scott Walker, et al.
Back to my point-we tolerate news organizations publishing quotes daily from politicians and other organizations without actually fact checking them. When is this going to stop? When the public demands real fact checking on every story.
I live in China and it sounds like another scam - The interpreter could not be reached? Someone was most likely paid to report it this way. Samsung? Yes, its a pity that most Americans are unknowing about the rest of the real world because most live in a bubble (until you see it for yourself YOU DONT KNOW IT!) but China is all about China. Its first priority is making money above all else and not much morals when going about it!
So I guess that all those nets around the buildings were for catching fish when the floods come right?
Here's the real lie.....Apple is an American company!
A product made in China is not American.
Who's making the money at Apple?
The 1%
Al Gore
"Our program adheres to the same journalistic standards as the other national shows,"
Therein lies the problem. Those "journalistic standards" of the other shows are crap too.
I've traveled the world over and I'd like to say that a radio show like "This American Life" is an unique piece of gem you'll only find in America. It truly represents the originality of the American spirit and whatever mistakes they've made with their Apple report it's just a drop in the ocean of good that show has done.
Thank you This American Life for the amazing enterprise you've become to be!
Sounds like the interpreter was paid a visit by Chinese govt folks... There is likely the real story.
Apple is just plain bad and has always been. @!$%# you Steve Jobs and the whores you rode in on.
What really surprises me, is that their are conservatives that even know what NPR is, much less listen to it. It tends to give you the facts and allow the listener to arrive at their own opinion. The conservatives that I am surrounded by everyday would not even know what NPR is. If it doesn't preach their preconceived ideas of how things are, it isn't significant. Would most likely go miles over their individual thoughtless heads. Those that haven't had a single unique thought in their lives. It would only make sense that they would want one of the only sources of very good, intellectual programming to be defunded. That scares them. An educated population is the enemy. NPR made a mistake and retracted it. It is comprised of humans (all of whom make mistakes) trying their best to get the facts out for public consumption and thoughtful analysis. If a program is for intelligent consumption and does not engage in ditto-head talking points, it must be liberal. I can think of many other worthless causes that should be defunded. We know who they are.
NPR is full of liberal (fill in blank) but it's soothing and what would the alternative be?
First off the reports of Foxconn's mistreatment of its employees starting appearing in April of 2010 after a number of workers had committed suicide over working conditions and wages. That is almost two years ago and it would seem from other reports that these problems still haven't been addressed.
So what is the truth here? It seems to me proper penitence and compensation would dictate a proper investigation and publishing of the real truth. - RC
Wow, so the only stuff that was verified and true was:
the cramped living conditions of Foxconn employees, excessive hours on the job and seven-day workweeks in which employees stand for hours without break, underage employees and workers exposed to deadly chemicals used to build and clean Apple products, documented deadly accidents at the plant and included damning quotes about Apple's ambivalence about working conditions. worker suicides at the plant, as well as the very low pay -- $1.78 an hour.
Whew, I am so relieved. You go, China, USA's favorite gulag.
OMG $1.78 an hr...it would take them 3 hours to make enough for a Cafe Mocha from Starbucks, this is outrageous...no one should be without a good mocha :P