Mike Daisey Lied About Seeing Abuses at Apple Plant in China, but for the Greater Good? | Strollerderby:
Before I get your feelings about Daisey and Apple, I want to share this exchange my friend and fellow comedian Charles Star and I had on Twitter this morning. It will give you all a final bit of context about Daisey’s lies and the bias of the media in general:
Ugarles: I’d be more cool with Ira Glass being upset with Mike Daisey if he were the same level of upset after running Gladwell’s fake Moth story.
missckc: @Ugarles Can you send me a link about the Moth thing?
Ugarles: @missckc here is gladwell basically admitting that the story was fake (with a link to the story) http://gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/2008/03/tall-tales.html
missckc: @Ugarles There’s a disclaimer, so maybe that’s why. With Daisey there were fact checking issues. [snipped]
Ugarles: @missckc It’s a bullshit disclaimer. I heard the story when it aired. The Moth calls itself “True stories, presented live, without notes.”
missckc: @Ugarles I see. So TAL was covering Gladwell’s ass is what you’re saying.
Ugarles: @missckc Yup. They were complicit in the deception and washed their hands of it.
It’s also interesting to note that just days before Daisey’s world fell apart, he and his director wife, Jean-Michele Gregory, agreed to make the script of “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” available for public consumption. In a press release, they wrote, “[the script] can be performed royalty-free, anywhere, anytime, by anyone.” In other words, to Daisey, the first person account isn’t what’s important; anyone can be the “I” in this monologue, as long as the information is shared.
