Mike Daisey, a journalist and feature writer, delivered a radio show about Chinese factory workers on NPR “This American Life” in January. I listened to the show one Sunday morning with a friend and kept thinking how odd it was that the things he was saying about his interviews with workers outside of Foxconn, just didn’t ring true. I remarked to my friend throughout the broadcast that his examples weren’t true, or were odd. For example, he claimed he talked to several young girls who told him they were 12 and 13. If they were underage workers at the Apple factory, why on earth would they say so and risk losing their jobs in one of the best factories in China? In another example he talked about guards at the factory gates toting guns. I have never seen anything like this in the factories I have visited.
Well, it turns out that Mike Daisey lied and embellished his story for NPR and for his off-Broadway monologue called “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs”. Only a few parts of his story were true…enough to make it sound real. NPR has broadcast a retraction and the world press has skewered Mike for lying.
It’s not that those of us with China experience don’t believe there is room for improvement. Chinese factories in general have a long way to go to improve working conditions and address human rights issues. Conditions are not consistently up to world standards yet. But the Foxconn factories are some of the best places to work. Apple, HP, Dell and other companies have taken pains to monitor the production environments to make them humane and safe.
What bothers me most about Mike Daisey’s lies is that he has incited people to believe more fiction about China. It’s time we dig deeper and question stories like this in the Western press and demand that our news companies verify all facts prior to printing or broadcasting.
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