Apple's biggest hater apologises for Foxconn fibs

Monologuist Mike Daisey apologised on his personal blog on Sunday for what he calls "violating audience trust," as well as not clearly acknowledging which portions of his one-man show, The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, were real, and which were fabricated.
Earlier this month, Public Radio International's This American Life retracted an episode that aired portions of his monologue after learning that Daisey had misrepresented his personal visit and experiences in China and at Foxconn. The original episode was the show's most listened-to episode in the history of This American Life, and news of the retraction sent ripples of controversy through the blogosphere.
"Daisey lied to me and to This American Life producer Brian Reed during the fact checking we did on the story, before it was broadcast," Ira Glass, the show's host, wrote in a blog post. "That doesn't excuse the fact that we never should've put this on the air. In the end, this was our mistake."
In Daisey's most recent blog entry, he includes the transcript of an interview he gave to a Seattle radio host about his policy on truth versus fiction, and concludes that he violated his own policy.
"When I said onstage that I had personally experienced things I in fact did not, I failed to honour the contract I'd established with my audiences over many years and many shows," Daisey wrote. "In doing so, I not only violated their trust, I also made worse art."
And after more than a week of denying wrong-doing, Daisey also offered an apology to those who may have been hurt by the incident, including "colleagues in the theatre, especially those who work in non-fiction and documentary fields" and to "the journalists I gave interviews to in which I exaggerated my own experiences," as well as to human rights advocates.
Although Daisey wasn't entirely truthful about his experiences in China, he nonetheless brought the issue of overseas factory worker conditions to the forefront of the public eye. Public petitions and protests and a raise in the pay of Foxconn factory workers have followed in the months since the This American Life episode aired. Although some in the tech community see this as a good thing overall, others maintain that Daisey's lies unnecessarily hurt the reputations of both Foxconn and Apple, as well as weakened the campaign calling Foxconn to change.

Thank You Source : www.wired.co.uk