Apple, Twitter, and Mike Daisy: The Man Behind the Screen

Mike Daisy: Chasing publicity or promoting change?

On Friday, we had a wonderful guest lecture by Molly Steenson. The content of the lecture: "truthiness" and journalistic integrity. "Preparing a lecture for 360 undergrads tomorrow on Mike Daisey, Jonah Lehrer & truthiness. The Daisey stuff is still chilling a year later." This a quote from Steenson's Twitter feed. I found the lecture to be well prepared and insightful. It cast Daisey in a fair and objective light. Daisey wanted Apple to be responsible for it's lapses in ethical manufacturing of its products. She discussed Daisey's background and his original broadcast on TAL (This American Life). We then listened to part of the retraction broadcast. We heard an interview where Daisey was directly confronted about the fabricated parts of his monologue. By the end of the lecture, my opinion was that Daisey was genuinely attempting to promote change, but that he had just gone about doing it the wrong way. He'd made a mistake. Okay, it happens.

This morning in lecture, which started at 9:55, Ms. Steenson took five minutes to reveal to us the events that unfolded due to the lecture over the weekend. She brought up her Twitter feed. She showed to us that none other than Mike Daisey had blown up the aforementioned post . She showed us his posts and his links. She then asked if we had any questions for Mr. Daisey. We did have a question. "@mdaisey Mike, one of my students would like to know: what sets you apart from Tarantino, who takes history & makes it art?" His response was to question whether the question really came from a student. "@maximolly If any student actually wants to ask me that, they can use Twitter themselves and ask." After all this exposure to the man, I can't really believe that he is simply trying to promote change. Rather, I believe that he is chasing publicity.

I now address you, Mr. Daisey. Why are you so invested as to what a bunch of undergrads at UW-Madison think? Who are you to challenge Ms. Steenson's ability to accurately and objectively inform us, the students, of your "mistake?" How can we trust you after you've been caught passing fabrication for fact?