Shocking scenes behind the fabrication
On Jan 6, National Public Radio of America aired an episode of This American Life featuring excerpts from actor Mike Daisey's solo show, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, describing Daisy's supposed findings from a "research trip" to Shenzhen, China, and the allegedly miserable working conditions at FoxConn, one of Apple's major manufacturers in China.
Daisey is not a journalist, but an independent performer of a one-man show. In his show he uses dramatic license to include exaggerations and fabrications for theatrical effect. However, this is no longer Marco Polo's world when one traveler to a faraway land can tell a story the way he wants and everybody simply believes him, and the loopholes in Daisey's story were soon exposed and discussed and analyzed in other major media outlets.
As a result, Ira Glass, the producer and host of This American Life retracted the program aired on Jan 6 and produced a 58-minute program in which Glass interrogated Daisey as a lawyer would interrogate a criminal. Daisey's telltale pauses and silences were faithfully kept in this Pinteresque radio drama about truth and lies.
