Hexane Evanescent

Rob Shmitz wrote a piece today on Mike Daisey, who has given interviews and published articles all across mass media speaking of the horrors he saw at Apple's manufacturing partner, Foxconn, in China. The trouble is, he made them all up:

“Look. I'm not going to say that I didn't take a few shortcuts in my passion to be heard. But I stand behind the work,” Daisey said. “My mistake, the mistake I truly regret, is that I had it on your show as journalism. And it's not journalism. It's theater.”

Public Radio International deserves credit for quickly retracting the story fully (unlike the New York Times, which merely says there are questions concerning the Op-Ed it published from Daisey).

Obviously, there are human rights concerns within the Chinese manufacturing complex. But, Daisey's critiques have always come off troubling, since he has focused on exposing horrendous “truths” about a company that normally appears to be very concerned about worker conditions in China (i.e. Apple). Now the reason it is troubling has become clear: Daisey's “truths” were false. And, while he claims he was purely being theatrical, he certainly didn't indicate that in his NYT Op-Ed or any of dozens of other places he “reported.”