This Mike Daisey is quite the character. Not only has he fabricated his story with little to no valid evidence, but he continues attempting to justify his behavior. He does this by claiming he heard about parts of his story from a second party, but not from first hand experience. The scary part is this gave all who listened to his story a negative connotation of factories in China that is far from true. I wonder what else this clown embellished and fabricated. When looking back at his website I see his comments on him being revealed as a phony. This man is continuing to make money off making a mockery of him lying. Something should be done! His freedom of the press right should be evoked to avoid making his way further in the limelight for being an unethical journalist. Honestly this whole situation royally pisses me off. I don't know how a journalist is allowed to lie to so many people and still continue to make money off of it.
Don't lie. Not even a white lie. As soon as one lie goes public, it's going to snowball into bigger, detrimental lies. Mike Daisey seems like a person who seems to exaggerate everything he says until the point that he almost believes it himself. It was interesting to listen to this piece but it was also very stressful. Rob Schmitz states that Daisey is a writer and an actor, which should immediately make him incredible because a journalist is the opposite. A journalist does not act and does not exaggerate. If a journalist wants the audience to feel a certain way, it is possible to present the story in a way to do so without exaggerating and lying. Daisey kept beating around the bush when he was asked if he was lying. At points it sounded as though he was admitting that he lied but other points he would contradict himself and say that his story was true. Since he released this monologue, he has been digging himself into a deeper hole and this interview tops it all off. He wouldn't directly admit his faults and claimed that the story was right to be told "in the context f the theater." I believe this was his way of admitting that his story was a lie without admitting that he was wrong. He claimed that the intention of his exaggeration was to make the story hold a bigger impact but that, in fact, back fired. He has now created a negative presence for himself and is greatly deemed unreliable. He admits that he is not a journalist (which he has proved is correct) but this is an example of a journalist's worst scenario.
When I began to listen to this episode, I immediately hated Mike Daisey. I did understand that he is not a journalist and therefore the journalistic integrity does not necessarily apply to him. However, radio and media in general has been proven numerous times to influence the audiences they reach. Daisey knowingly put his fact-less story on national radio and outraged thousands of Americans. His lies hurt the reputation of The American Life and the people standing behind it. I also understand that Mike Daisey is in the theater business and naturally moves in exaggerated ways. This is clearly heard in the snippets of his monologue where he appears confident, passionate and emotional about the issues he says he witnessed at the factories he visited. Later when Ira Glass confronts Daisey with questions regarding specific details of his experience he becomes very hesitant and nervous when answering. He is cornered and has no chance of escaping without a few punches to his ego. I did notice he never once said “I lied.” This really bothered me because he blatantly lied. He lied about the guards with guns, underage workers, the n-hexane poisoning, the man with the mangled hand, and so much more. When he came back to talk with Glass, I was surprised that I almost began to understand why he did what he did. The coverage on the suicides at Foxconn had stopped and he felt like that was a disservice to the families of the victims and the public in general. He wanted the story to make a deeper impact on people. In my mind, this was a noble reason for the actions he took. However later on in the segment it was revealed he had exaggerated previous monologues also. This, compiled with his history of lying regarding Foxconn and the fact that he came back a week later, still left me unconvinced. I felt as though he took that week to make up a reason behind his actions so he could appear to audiences as having a good heart in the wrong place. This actually made me even angrier and instead I looked at him as selfish, only out to ensure he received the right reaction from his audiences.
I think it was very professional that the station took blame for telling the story and didn't fully blame Daisy. It gives the station more credit for admitting that they made a mistake and didn't act as though they did nothing wrong. That being said, I think it was extremely disrespectful to lie to not only the station but to all the listeners. Once he was caught in a lie he should've admitted it and made a formal apology instead of giving the station the running around and trying to say that he did not fully lie and just stretched the truth. It would have been much better for his standing to have just said sorry as soon as he was caught and owned up to his mistake but instead he just dug himself into a much deeper hole. He put the station and his translator in a very tough spot and made the listeners lose trust in him and the station. I think the station handled it very well, but Daisy handled it selfishly and childishly.
After the disclaimer in the beginning of the segment I didn’t even want to finish listening to it. The fact that someone could like that and make accusations like that against that company with no evidence is ridiculous; I just don’t understand how someone could do that. He not only damaged the reputation of the company he targeted in the piece but he also ruined himself. No one is ever going to take anything he says or does seriously again. I would have to say what bothered me the most about it was that he was trying to justify what he did. Even though he admits that he is not a journalist, which this obviously proved, that does not excuse him from his complete disregard to the basic standard of truth. This also put the station in an awkward position because what he did made them look bad, however the station did the responsible thing and took some of the blame for what was done by admitting their lack of fact checking prior to airing the segment.
Mike Daisy is very hard to listen to throughout this episode. It's very easy to pick up on his lies and I could feel how uncomfortable he was during it. In his clips from his play, he sounds so sincere and passionate about the material he was talking about, but when he's on the show he sounds confused and uninformed. He trips over his own words and there are many awkward silences that make me feel extremely embarrassed for him. I think it's sad that someone would lie about a subject that's about human emotional and physical health. I disagree with his translator. Just because he's a writer, doesn't mean that he can change so many details just to get publicity. He says he thinks the truth is important, yet he lives a lie. He talks about everything was "built" out of the truth, which is clearly different than being truthful.
Ira's use of silence in the interview is wonderfully balanced by his pressing of Daisey in key moments. He doesn't allow Daisey to gather himself and compose his thoughts, hoping that being a gadfly will get Daisey to the impossible and be honest. The way he vacillates between admission of guilt and justification is pitiful, and Ira's pushing shows how not only is this story a house of cards, but so is the reputation Daisey has built for himself. Ira also schools him on how to properly interview and convey a story right before him.
This episode definitely shows the importance to sticking to the facts when reporting. It is difficult to know what to think about Mike Daisy when listening to his clips. I do not believe that he lied or misled his audience out of bad intentions but was just too stupid at the time to realize what kind of trouble he could get in. I found myself feeling sorry for him throughout the episode instead of hating him or blaming him for his deceptiveness. It also helps that his intentions, improving the factory working conditions, were somewhat good. He thought that fabricating the facts of his monologue would help other people get behind his cause. Also I can understand his argument saying that journalistic integrity does not necessarily apply to the theater. However, I find it pathetic that one would travel all the way to China for a story and have to make up facts to make their story interesting. I agree with Ira Glass when he says that Daisy is sending the message that the truth alone is not good enough to make a touching or convincing piece. People should not have to look at news or a piece of journalism and wonder which facts are real and which are made up. We should be able to have confidence that the information we are getting from journalists is trustworthy and accurate.
Although Mike Daisey isn't a journalist, his work is clearly seen and heard by a vast amount of people who assume that what they are being exposed to is valid information. I think that morally Daisey's actions are inexcusable, and having to listen to him speak after hearing what he has done is irritating. Ira Glass did a wonderful job in taking responsibility for the release of Daisey's story, stating that they should have done further investigation on the case rather than fully blaming Daisey. It bothers me to know that there are people out there like Daisey who lie so frequently, and so freely without having any repercussions. I think that interviewing Daisey after the fact, and calling him out on his fabrications is a great way to handle such a situation. Daisey's tone was completely different from his interview, and his episode where in his interview you could tell he was caught off guard and did not know how to handle being confronted about a web of lies he created.
It was interesting to see how far this man got with his lies before he was uncovered as a liar. I think that the saddest thing from this story is that people have horrible experiences that would be true but because he was lying he belittles other people’s truths. This in my opinion gives people the impression that things they hear about the horrors of other countries are fabrications or exagerations. I know a lot of people that don’t believe things like this story and this example of someone blatantly lying gives these people more reason to think ignorantly.
This Mike Daisey is quite the character. Not only has he fabricated his story with little to no valid evidence, but he continues attempting to justify his behavior. He does this by claiming he heard about parts of his story from a second party, but not from first hand experience. The scary part is this gave all who listened to his story a negative connotation of factories in China that is far from true. I wonder what else this clown embellished and fabricated. When looking back at his website I see his comments on him being revealed as a phony. This man is continuing to make money off making a mockery of him lying. Something should be done! His freedom of the press right should be evoked to avoid making his way further in the limelight for being an unethical journalist. Honestly this whole situation royally pisses me off. I don't know how a journalist is allowed to lie to so many people and still continue to make money off of it.
ReplyDeleteDon't lie. Not even a white lie. As soon as one lie goes public, it's going to snowball into bigger, detrimental lies. Mike Daisey seems like a person who seems to exaggerate everything he says until the point that he almost believes it himself. It was interesting to listen to this piece but it was also very stressful. Rob Schmitz states that Daisey is a writer and an actor, which should immediately make him incredible because a journalist is the opposite. A journalist does not act and does not exaggerate. If a journalist wants the audience to feel a certain way, it is possible to present the story in a way to do so without exaggerating and lying. Daisey kept beating around the bush when he was asked if he was lying. At points it sounded as though he was admitting that he lied but other points he would contradict himself and say that his story was true. Since he released this monologue, he has been digging himself into a deeper hole and this interview tops it all off. He wouldn't directly admit his faults and claimed that the story was right to be told "in the context f the theater." I believe this was his way of admitting that his story was a lie without admitting that he was wrong. He claimed that the intention of his exaggeration was to make the story hold a bigger impact but that, in fact, back fired. He has now created a negative presence for himself and is greatly deemed unreliable. He admits that he is not a journalist (which he has proved is correct) but this is an example of a journalist's worst scenario.
ReplyDeleteWhen I began to listen to this episode, I immediately hated Mike Daisey. I did understand that he is not a journalist and therefore the journalistic integrity does not necessarily apply to him. However, radio and media in general has been proven numerous times to influence the audiences they reach. Daisey knowingly put his fact-less story on national radio and outraged thousands of Americans. His lies hurt the reputation of The American Life and the people standing behind it. I also understand that Mike Daisey is in the theater business and naturally moves in exaggerated ways. This is clearly heard in the snippets of his monologue where he appears confident, passionate and emotional about the issues he says he witnessed at the factories he visited. Later when Ira Glass confronts Daisey with questions regarding specific details of his experience he becomes very hesitant and nervous when answering. He is cornered and has no chance of escaping without a few punches to his ego. I did notice he never once said “I lied.” This really bothered me because he blatantly lied. He lied about the guards with guns, underage workers, the n-hexane poisoning, the man with the mangled hand, and so much more. When he came back to talk with Glass, I was surprised that I almost began to understand why he did what he did. The coverage on the suicides at Foxconn had stopped and he felt like that was a disservice to the families of the victims and the public in general. He wanted the story to make a deeper impact on people. In my mind, this was a noble reason for the actions he took. However later on in the segment it was revealed he had exaggerated previous monologues also. This, compiled with his history of lying regarding Foxconn and the fact that he came back a week later, still left me unconvinced. I felt as though he took that week to make up a reason behind his actions so he could appear to audiences as having a good heart in the wrong place. This actually made me even angrier and instead I looked at him as selfish, only out to ensure he received the right reaction from his audiences.
ReplyDeleteI think it was very professional that the station took blame for telling the story and didn't fully blame Daisy. It gives the station more credit for admitting that they made a mistake and didn't act as though they did nothing wrong. That being said, I think it was extremely disrespectful to lie to not only the station but to all the listeners. Once he was caught in a lie he should've admitted it and made a formal apology instead of giving the station the running around and trying to say that he did not fully lie and just stretched the truth. It would have been much better for his standing to have just said sorry as soon as he was caught and owned up to his mistake but instead he just dug himself into a much deeper hole. He put the station and his translator in a very tough spot and made the listeners lose trust in him and the station. I think the station handled it very well, but Daisy handled it selfishly and childishly.
ReplyDeleteAfter the disclaimer in the beginning of the segment I didn’t even want to finish listening to it. The fact that someone could like that and make accusations like that against that company with no evidence is ridiculous; I just don’t understand how someone could do that. He not only damaged the reputation of the company he targeted in the piece but he also ruined himself. No one is ever going to take anything he says or does seriously again. I would have to say what bothered me the most about it was that he was trying to justify what he did. Even though he admits that he is not a journalist, which this obviously proved, that does not excuse him from his complete disregard to the basic standard of truth. This also put the station in an awkward position because what he did made them look bad, however the station did the responsible thing and took some of the blame for what was done by admitting their lack of fact checking prior to airing the segment.
ReplyDeleteMike Daisy is very hard to listen to throughout this episode. It's very easy to pick up on his lies and I could feel how uncomfortable he was during it. In his clips from his play, he sounds so sincere and passionate about the material he was talking about, but when he's on the show he sounds confused and uninformed. He trips over his own words and there are many awkward silences that make me feel extremely embarrassed for him. I think it's sad that someone would lie about a subject that's about human emotional and physical health. I disagree with his translator. Just because he's a writer, doesn't mean that he can change so many details just to get publicity. He says he thinks the truth is important, yet he lives a lie. He talks about everything was "built" out of the truth, which is clearly different than being truthful.
ReplyDeleteIra's use of silence in the interview is wonderfully balanced by his pressing of Daisey in key moments. He doesn't allow Daisey to gather himself and compose his thoughts, hoping that being a gadfly will get Daisey to the impossible and be honest. The way he vacillates between admission of guilt and justification is pitiful, and Ira's pushing shows how not only is this story a house of cards, but so is the reputation Daisey has built for himself. Ira also schools him on how to properly interview and convey a story right before him.
ReplyDeleteThis episode definitely shows the importance to sticking to the facts when reporting. It is difficult to know what to think about Mike Daisy when listening to his clips. I do not believe that he lied or misled his audience out of bad intentions but was just too stupid at the time to realize what kind of trouble he could get in. I found myself feeling sorry for him throughout the episode instead of hating him or blaming him for his deceptiveness. It also helps that his intentions, improving the factory working conditions, were somewhat good. He thought that fabricating the facts of his monologue would help other people get behind his cause. Also I can understand his argument saying that journalistic integrity does not necessarily apply to the theater. However, I find it pathetic that one would travel all the way to China for a story and have to make up facts to make their story interesting. I agree with Ira Glass when he says that Daisy is sending the message that the truth alone is not good enough to make a touching or convincing piece. People should not have to look at news or a piece of journalism and wonder which facts are real and which are made up. We should be able to have confidence that the information we are getting from journalists is trustworthy and accurate.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Mike Daisey isn't a journalist, his work is clearly seen and heard by a vast amount of people who assume that what they are being exposed to is valid information. I think that morally Daisey's actions are inexcusable, and having to listen to him speak after hearing what he has done is irritating. Ira Glass did a wonderful job in taking responsibility for the release of Daisey's story, stating that they should have done further investigation on the case rather than fully blaming Daisey. It bothers me to know that there are people out there like Daisey who lie so frequently, and so freely without having any repercussions. I think that interviewing Daisey after the fact, and calling him out on his fabrications is a great way to handle such a situation. Daisey's tone was completely different from his interview, and his episode where in his interview you could tell he was caught off guard and did not know how to handle being confronted about a web of lies he created.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to see how far this man got with his lies before he was uncovered as a liar. I think that the saddest thing from this story is that people have horrible experiences that would be true but because he was lying he belittles other people’s truths. This in my opinion gives people the impression that things they hear about the horrors of other countries are fabrications or exagerations. I know a lot of people that don’t believe things like this story and this example of someone blatantly lying gives these people more reason to think ignorantly.
ReplyDelete