If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Did Marketplace's Rob Schmitz really think that, on a tour of the facility arranged by Apple and Foxxconn that he would meet underaged workers, people poisoned on the job, or people who had been hurt in a explosion?
It makes sense to expect that the most important aspects of Mike Daisey's monologue be able to stand up to scrutiny, but to excerpt a theatre piece, a work of testimonia, a memoir and suddenly expect it to stand up to journalistic standards is naïve at best and dishonest at worst.
Even if Mike Daisey is the Sharazad of documentary theater -- a man for whom fantastical tale-telling comes as a second nature -- it seems unfair to be too hard on him.
What is most tragic here isn't Daisey's lying -- everything in China is part of the Big Lie -- it's that his misplaced heroism and genuine American naivety on economics is so common in the media.
If one fundamental truth has emerged from the scandal surrounding Daisey's dramatic fudging, it's that the lived reality of many Chinese workers is undoubtedly bleak -- no embellishment needed.
Can a writer working in the realm of nonfiction ever change the facts because he's Making Art or Delivering an Important Message? The view of basically every respected journalist is Hell No. But a new book takes the opposite view.
He borrows the power of the truth business to create drama. He's like the politician that lies about his résumé. But is the lying pol better or worse than the demagogue who speaks from the heart?
The journalist and the dramatist must navigate between the siren call of story and the rocky shoals of truth. Both Jason Russell and Mike Daisey wrecked their ships. We should judge them not simply by their navigational skills, or lack thereof, but also the things they carried.
Prior to the airing of last weekend's Retraction episode of This American Life, the big story around Mike Daisey's monologue was its release as a free download, available for others to perform royalty-free.
If invisible Children and Mike Daisey did nothing else, they woke the vast majority of the planet up to the fact that we need to pay attention to the human rights of everyone.
We should expect our media to pursue truth above all else and when errors are made, that they are corrected. Ira Glass lived up to journalism's greatest objective, which sadly is an all-too-rare occurrence in an age where the Fox News reaction is what we have come to expect.
Mike Daisey is a man damned -- or so the blogosphere, journos and pundits the world over would have us believe. He conflated fact and fiction, and he ...
Ira Glass took full responsibility for airing the narrative and repeatedly apologized to his viewers throughout Friday's broadcast. Unfortunately, Mike Daisey's apology wasn't quite as convincing.
Many have reported on the working conditions at Foxconn, but it's Mike Daisey's one-man play, media coverage of his work and the broadcast of a one-hour version on the public radio series This American Life that seem to have galvanized public opinion.
The San Francisco Bay area has such a vibrant arts community that prioritizing events can become a mind-numbing exercise. Here is a slideshow of the 11 most thrilling events I attended in 2011.
What do a man talking about Apple products, a one-minute play festival, and a woman in a sparkly cape have in common?
