WWotD - 20 March 2012

So what is the deal with Mike Daisey? It's interesting that people presumed he was telling the whole truth, when at best he was going for truthiness. Daisey's reasoning is that "this isn't about me lying to you or anyone else. This is about me doing everything I could to get the media to pay attention to an issue that had previously been ignored but that now, thank goodness, has been properly covered and verified." For others, this reasoning is on par with "the ends justify the means." While I don't have all of the facts, I pretty much side with the latter interpretation. He's appeared on news programs to present his "material" without any kind of disclaimer as to the veracity of his stories. Whatever he wants to present on the stage is his business (literally), but don't go on the news and present made up stories*. If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then by God it shouldn't be an aardvark.

     =/= 

If Daisey wants to convince people that there are severe issues with the manufacturing plants in China, making stories up dissipates the severity of actual problems that [might?] exist. So he's made his point...but pretty much destroyed any other points he looks to make in the future.

* This of course presumes that the news maintains a level of journalistic integrity.

fab·u·list

 noun \ˈfa-byə-list\

Definition of FABULIST

1

: a creator or writer of fables

2

: liar

— fabulist or fab·u·lis·tic  adjective
from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fabulist