I spent Saturday morning listening to this
piece on NPR's "This
American Life". The topic was the retraction of a story done in January by monologist Mike Daisey who on air, told a fabricated experience of his visit to one of the factories in China that makes Apple products. As NPR reports, "The piece essentially made Daisey Apple's chief critic
and it also inspired a Change.org petition that collected more than 250,000
signatures demanding that Apple better the working conditions at the factories." Daisey also wrote a one man performance called "The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs", in which he includes the same fictional account of his trip.
It would seem that aside from actually going to China, actually meeting with a interpreter who calls herself Kathy Lee, and actually visiting a real manufacturing plant called Foxconn... the entire rest of the piece is completely fabricated. The tale he tells about his visit state everything from grossly under aged workers as young as 12, to disfigured employees who became so due to untreated on the job accidents, to poisoned factory workers who received permanent motor damage from electronic cleaning solvent, to Foxconn its self being guarded by workers with guns to keep people working and thieves from stealing products. It's basically everything you've ever feared and imagined about the way communist China allows businesses to treat their workers, realized... but untrue and created to use you in this case.
To me, this is the absolute WORST thing anyone could have done in an effort to expose the problems within China's labor force. As Jeff Yang of The Wall Street Journal puts it: "The story he’s telling is an important one. There’s a huge human cost to the creation of cool devices. But by blurring fact and fiction, not on stage, but on camera, in print and on air, Daisey has seriously compromised his ability to act as a credible voice on this issue — and significantly hurt the cause of labor organizers and advocates in China, who now face the possibility that all of their claims will be treated with skepticism or dismissed, both by authorities in China and potential supporters in the U.S." Yes. 1000% THAT.
We saw this happen recently with the Kony 2012 project, as well. The not for profit group The Invisible Children used highly emotional media that was not 100% factual and overly simplified in an effort to bring about awareness... and in the end has probably hurt the cause more than it has helped it. Not to mention it has stripped away the credibility of an organization who has arguably done a lot of good up until now.
Emotional manipulation seems to be the go to tactic for any cause who wishes to convey what they do not have the evidence to sway you with; To "liven up" and make entertaining for us what we might have otherwise glossed over. We have a responsibility TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THIS. We have a responsibility to ourselves... but more importantly to our communities and to our country... to wade through things that affect us emotionally and look at the issues with open eyes and open minds. Regardless of what your gut instincts, faith and principles are… if you are being lied to, to reinforce these core beliefs…you have a responsibility to figure this out! And then another to question and seek to reinforce your positions with the truth if they then remain your positions.
Mike Daisey did just the opposite. When he discovered that the truth is Foxconn has been positively affected by Apple’s demands that they adhere to humane treatment of their employees, he lied. He lied because there are so many other manufacturing plants that do not. He lied in the name of awareness. This cannot be permitted or condoned no matter what the benefit as, there is no line that can be drawn to keep the “wrong” from doing it too.
What we take away from this in the wake of being lied to is the importance of knowing that no matter which side you fall on in an issue, if you find yourself becoming emotional there should be a bell going off in your head that warns you to gather all the information before you proceed. Against your instincts, even. We should be actively seeking the truth at all times and in all things. What you know as "truth" today... deserves to be questioned again tomorrow if it deserves to be shared at all.
It would seem that aside from actually going to China, actually meeting with a interpreter who calls herself Kathy Lee, and actually visiting a real manufacturing plant called Foxconn... the entire rest of the piece is completely fabricated. The tale he tells about his visit state everything from grossly under aged workers as young as 12, to disfigured employees who became so due to untreated on the job accidents, to poisoned factory workers who received permanent motor damage from electronic cleaning solvent, to Foxconn its self being guarded by workers with guns to keep people working and thieves from stealing products. It's basically everything you've ever feared and imagined about the way communist China allows businesses to treat their workers, realized... but untrue and created to use you in this case.
To me, this is the absolute WORST thing anyone could have done in an effort to expose the problems within China's labor force. As Jeff Yang of The Wall Street Journal puts it: "The story he’s telling is an important one. There’s a huge human cost to the creation of cool devices. But by blurring fact and fiction, not on stage, but on camera, in print and on air, Daisey has seriously compromised his ability to act as a credible voice on this issue — and significantly hurt the cause of labor organizers and advocates in China, who now face the possibility that all of their claims will be treated with skepticism or dismissed, both by authorities in China and potential supporters in the U.S." Yes. 1000% THAT.
We saw this happen recently with the Kony 2012 project, as well. The not for profit group The Invisible Children used highly emotional media that was not 100% factual and overly simplified in an effort to bring about awareness... and in the end has probably hurt the cause more than it has helped it. Not to mention it has stripped away the credibility of an organization who has arguably done a lot of good up until now.
Emotional manipulation seems to be the go to tactic for any cause who wishes to convey what they do not have the evidence to sway you with; To "liven up" and make entertaining for us what we might have otherwise glossed over. We have a responsibility TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THIS. We have a responsibility to ourselves... but more importantly to our communities and to our country... to wade through things that affect us emotionally and look at the issues with open eyes and open minds. Regardless of what your gut instincts, faith and principles are… if you are being lied to, to reinforce these core beliefs…you have a responsibility to figure this out! And then another to question and seek to reinforce your positions with the truth if they then remain your positions.
Mike Daisey did just the opposite. When he discovered that the truth is Foxconn has been positively affected by Apple’s demands that they adhere to humane treatment of their employees, he lied. He lied because there are so many other manufacturing plants that do not. He lied in the name of awareness. This cannot be permitted or condoned no matter what the benefit as, there is no line that can be drawn to keep the “wrong” from doing it too.
What we take away from this in the wake of being lied to is the importance of knowing that no matter which side you fall on in an issue, if you find yourself becoming emotional there should be a bell going off in your head that warns you to gather all the information before you proceed. Against your instincts, even. We should be actively seeking the truth at all times and in all things. What you know as "truth" today... deserves to be questioned again tomorrow if it deserves to be shared at all.
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