Retraction.

Two months ago, This American Life (TAL), my favorite radio show of all time, ran a radio story about Mike Daisey's monologue and played part of his monologue on the show. This is the same monologue that made me start my blog. Since TAL is a journalistic show, they did their best to fact check Daisey's story. The only person they were unable to talk to was his translator, Cathy. Daisey told TAL that her real name was not Cathy, and that he had a cell phone number for her but that the cell phone number did not work anymore. TAL took him at his word and didn't pursue it any further.

This week, This American Life issued a retraction of this story. Turns out that his translator's name IS Cathy, and a China-based reporter from Marketplace tracked her down after having questions about Daisey's story. Cathy was unable to corroborate much of his most compelling stories. Examples: Daisey opens the show saying that the Foxconn plant was surrounded by security guards with big guns. But in China, no one other than the police and military is allowed to have guns. Cathy says she has never seen a gun in real life, only in the movies and TV. If these security guards had guns, she would remember. Daisey claimed to meet many underage workers that spoke to him in English about the working conditions. Cathy does not remember meeting any underage workers. Daisey told a sad story about workers who were exposed to hexane and shook so much from neurological damage, they were unable to hold a glass. While it's true that workers in other plants in China did suffer from hexane exposure, Cathy says they never met anyone with these symptoms. The list goes on and on.

When Ira Glass confronts Daisey about the lies, Daisey does admit that he made up some things or changed the timeline for theatrical effect. And even though Glass and other producers of TAL emphasized to Daisey that what is said on TAL needs to be absolutely true, Daisey allowed them to air parts of the monologue that he admits to making up or embellishing. 

Yes, Daisey's monologue is for theater and does not have to meet journalistic standards. But once it crosses the line from theater to journalism, things get fuzzy. When I saw the show, I believed every word of Daisey's monologue. There is no "disclaimer" that his story is not completely factual, and the way it's told, well, you don't question it. He says "I saw this," "I was told this," and "I am telling you this happened." You take him at his word, and what he says really affects the way you perceive work conditions, Apple, China, everything. And it didn't just affect me, it affected thousands of people who saw the monologue, heard it on TAL, or talked with someone who heard/saw the monologue.

I'm incredibly happy to hear TAL call out Daisey. But the question remains: should we feel guilty about Chinese working conditions? Is it really as bad as Daisey describes, even if he didn't see everything he claims? Many of the scenarios he describes that he didn't witness have happened in China, and when you combine them into one monologue, it makes for a very compelling, tragic story. In rare cases, some workers have committed suicide or been injured and killed in dust explosions. That hasn't changed. But China is a developing country with millions of workers who migrate to the city for work. And migrants want to make money for the families they left behind, so they may want to work incredibly long hours for more pay. That doesn't make the conditions ok. Daisey's story has raised awareness of the working conditions and has forced Apple and others to be more transparent in their inspection reports. Does that make Daisey's fibs ok?

I still don't know how to feel about all of this. Is it ok for me to buy stuff made in China? Should I feel guilty when I open my Macbook? I do know that I shouldn't let such emotional, heart-wrenching stories cloud my ability to separate fact from fiction.

What do you think? Leave a comment below!