Author and actor Mike Daisey complained that he was unfairly portrayed in his interview with "This American Life" host Ira Glass, following the revelation that parts of his high-profile story on Apple manufacturers were fabricated.
On Friday, "This American Life" retracted Daisey's story about his visit to the Foxconn factories in China after it was found to be partially fabricated. The piece, which aired on January 6, had been a huge hit and downloaded over 888,000 times. Daisey defended his work on his blog, and admitted to taking shortcuts in an interview with host Ira Glass.
On Monday, Daisey reacted to the interview in a blog post. He was not pleased with how he had been presented in the segment, which he called "excruciating" to hear.
"I thought the dead air was a nice touch, and finishing the episode with audio pulled out of context from my performance was masterful," he wrote.
He went on to express that the criticism he has received is exaggerated, and to defend elements of his work. He maintained that the heart of his story — the harsh working conditions in factories where employees assemble Apple products — was true.
Especially galling is how many are gleefully eager to dance on my grave expressly so they can return to ignoring everything about the circumstances under which their devices are made. Given the tone, you would think I had fabulated an elaborate hoax, filled with astonishing horrors that no one had ever seen before.
Except that we all know that isn’t true.
There is nothing in this controversy that contests the facts in my work about the nature of Chinese manufacturing. Nothing. I think we all know if there was, Ira would have brought it up.
You certainly don’t need to listen to me. Read the New York Times reporting. Listen to the NPR piece that ran just last week in which workers at an iPad plant go on record saying the plant was inspected by Apple just hours before it exploded, and that the inspection lasted all of ten minutes.
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