Earlier today, Ira Glass of This American Life announced the show was retracting its Apple episode due to lies told by Mike Daisey.
Tonight, This American Life devoted its entire show to explaining the retraction. I recommend listening (with accompanying transcript).
In a particularly gripping part of the episode, Glass confronts Daisey about his fabrication.
Ira Glass: You put us in this position of going out and vouching for the truth of what you were saying and all along, in all of these ways, you knew that these things weren’t true. Did you ever stop and think, okay these things aren’t true and you have us vouching for their truth?
Mike Daisey: I did, I did. I thought about that a lot.
Ira Glass: And just what did you think?
Mike Daisey: I felt really conflicted. I felt… trapped.
I applaud Glass for doing the right thing. However, as John Gruber notes, more companies owe the public a retraction.