<p>This Amercian Life story was partially fabricated.</p>
<p>[This</a> American Life retracts Apple episode, says Daisey fabricated part of it | The Lookout - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/american-life-retracts-apple-episode-says-daisey-fabricated-175638428.html]This”>This American Life retracts Apple episode, says Daisey fabricated parts)</p>
<p>“it wasn’t journalism, it was theatre”. Oh, OK.</p>
<p>I heard the original story, it was pretty compelling. Can’t remember that show every making a retraction before – they do a lot of interesting stuff, more of it journalistic lately than in the past. A drug court judge in Georgia recently retired rather than face an extensive series of ethics violation charges based on a show they did. The Planet Money team has done some especially insighful stuff on the economy (European debt crisis was the last one). It is certainly a mea culpa on their part to devote a whole show to the retraction; I will be interested to hear what they have to say.</p>
<p>I wanted to add that this is not an NPR program even though it is heard on NPR stations. It’s produced by American Public Radio.</p>
<p>I also found the story very compelling when I heard it when it first aired. Too bad Ira Glass was not more involved because as mentioned above, he did a fantastic job on the alleged court corruption investigation. The judge in question actually lives about two miles from me.</p>
<p>The retraction is equally compelling listening, and an example of how good journalism should be done: [Retraction</a> | This American Life](<a href=“http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/460/retraction]Retraction”>http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/460/retraction).</p>
<p>(BTW, the program is produced by Chicago Public Media and distributed by Public Radio International.)</p>
<p>The retraction was very interesting listening - and I really appreciated Ira Glass doing it. It reminded me of the essayist who thinks his essays only need to be sorta true. <a href=“‘The Lifespan of a Fact,’ by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal - The New York Times”>‘The Lifespan of a Fact,’ by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal - The New York Times;
<p>That said, I’ve heard plenty of pieces by David Sedaris on This American Life, and haven’t really assumed every single word of them is true.</p>
<p>Lol, mathmom! Of course some of his stories aren’t true, but I actually hope some are. Have you ever heard his story about being on public transportation in France with an American couple who think he is a pickpocket?</p>
<p>This show reaffirms why I love This American Life. If only other new organizations would admit when they get it wrong. </p>
<p>AS for David Sedaris, I think he makes it very clear that he is a satirist, and regularly uses licenses for comic affect in the great tradition of Twain.</p>
<p>Its hard to “make a difference” in the world as a journalist if you are strictly restricted to objective facts.</p>
<p>[AAPL</a> - SharpCharts Workbench - StockCharts.com](<a href=“AAPL | SharpCharts | StockCharts.com”>AAPL | SharpCharts | StockCharts.com)</p>
<p>This American Life is a quality program and to their credit they realized what had happened and owned up to it fully and immediately. Problems at Apple factories were fairly well documented before that show, this does not mean the entire issue is moot.</p>
<p>Objective facts are always good dadx. Over the past 10 years especially, our newspapers have swallowed a lot of lies and then regurgitated them as objective facts. I haven’t seen any admission of responsibility whatsoever on that score. Too bad there are not more Ira Glass types to go around.</p>