Well played, @mdaisey by Matthew Panzarino:
That would have been that, if not for a message from Steve a few minutes later. Daisey had not only seen his Tweet, he had retweeted it.
I think that there's something to be said for someone who owns the public opinion about them, good or bad, and faces up to it. Yes, it could just be that Daisey is happy with anything that keeps his name out there, but I don't think so. I think that there is an important lesson in this about acknowledging that there is a person behind any scandal or news story.
Sometimes people make a mistake, willful or not. In Daisey's case, probably both. An initial desperate desire to make a point about the way that western consumer culture affects Chinese workers led him to lie. That lie then took on a life of its own and he perpetuated it.
But that doesn't mean that there wasn't a life lived outside and around that lie that didn't have a positive influence. Both people who have known Daisey personally and who have merely heard him speak have said that he is a supremely gifted orator.
I still believe that what he did in speaking untruths about what he found in China did harm to the issue at large. That sucks, frankly, because it is an important one. But Daisey knew that it was important and lied to try to bring attention to it. And, even though it was very wrong, It is also very human.
And Daisey hasn't crawled into a hole. He didn't shut down his blog or his Twitter. And he's owning what people are saying about him.
For that I say, well played @mdaisey.
