Mike Daisey

The monologist Mike Daisey’s recent travails have taught him something valuable. His new work, a series of six monologues to be performed, one per month, at Joe’s Pub beginning Monday, will allow him to premiere a piece only when he’s comfortable with it.

“One of the reasons we constructed this series the way we have is it gives me flexibility—if I’m working on a story and it needs time to gestate, it gets that,” Mr. Daisey told the Transom. “In the world of magazines, a long piece can be moved to the next issue. But in the world of theater, they’re so used to working entirely in a world composed only of scripted fiction, and it’s hard to say, ‘You know how you got a description of a show—that’s not what the show is!’”

Mr. Daisey, who answered questions in complete paragraphs, does not work from a script, and his monologues—the first of which in his upcoming series is capacious, including accounts of trips to Zuccotti Park, the Burning Man Festival and Disney World—appeal to an emotional sense of the truth, even as they take some license. This was the issue that led to Mr. Daisey’s temporary fall from grace earlier this year, when an episode of This American Life adapted from his monologue The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs was dinged for factual inaccuracies pertaining to a trip to a Foxconn plant in China. He has continued to perform a revised version onstage. “To be honest,” he said, “the bigger problem is trusting yourself—I should make this personal—trusting myself. If you’re good at storytelling, you can control the room. That’s what makes it such a seductive medium. It’s a rigorous responsibility to control that gift. It’s difficult to face up to where you fell short. You must not abuse your gift. I went back into theaters. It was really clear to me I could get that authority back. The problem is not, will people give me authority back—when you’re a professional storyteller in world where there are not many oral storytellers, the biggest problem is yourself.”

In Mr. Daisey’s telling, his relationship with his audience has not been affected by the controversy. “In the room, it’s the same. Outside the room, in the media, it still feels stormy and tempestuous ... It didn’t only make me think about consequences of facts and what happens when people are factually true and what different degrees of truth are. It made me think about the value of imagination, and the value of not shortchanging that as well.

“Now that I’m on the other side of it, I’m a better artist. I’d be hard-pressed to roll time back,” he said.

His new work places him, as with his journey to Foxconn and other past pieces, in unexpected locales; Mr. Daisey said he never expected to go to Occupy Wall Street, for instance. “My work has a strong political component, but in my lifetime, I haven’t been an active activist. I have no history of protests. In each of these arenas, I came as an outsider.”

As an outsider, Mr. Daisey has been able to ensure that his reactions to what he sees are genuine through a simple trick. Whether traveling to Disney, Zuccotti or the Black Rock Desert, “if something happens while I am somewhere, and I find myself consciously thinking, this would be a good story, I forbid myself from using that. If you really stick to it, you can send a message back to your subconscious—so I don’t have that thought anymore. I’m actually able to have an authentic experience, and be present. I found it very helpful, if not for the creation of art, then for the living of a normal life.”

David Rakoff (Getty)

David Rakoff, an "East Asian Studies Major Who Has Forgotten Most of His Japanese" and one of New York's finest essayists, passed away Thursday evening following a long battle with cancer. He was 47.

Mr. Rakoff, a frequent contributor to NPR's This American Life and one of the few ever asked to guest-host the show, was the author of three books: Fraud, Don’t Get Too Comfortable, and Half Empty. In 2011, the writer had his poignant essay about cancer published in The New York Times, which highlighted both the comedian's pathos and sense of humor:

We like to think that the empathy broadcast with the swooping, downward intonation of the "aaawwww" is an evolutionary comfort; something we are programmed to welcome and offer freely ourselves. As a comment on something that has already happened, it probably works. But as an anticipatory tool, it does not soften the blow, indeed it does the opposite. It leaves you exposed, like grabbing onto the trunk of a tree for support in a storm only to find the wood soaked through and punky and coming apart in your hands. The sweetest bedtime-story delivery is no help when the words it delivers are a version of " . . . and behind this door is a tiger. Brace yourself."

Have a fantastic day.

The Accusers

Yasha Levine and Mark Ames, writing for their own site, The S.H.A.M.E. Media Transparency Project, which opened shop on in March. As Russian expats, both helped co-found the satirical Russian alt-biweekly The eXile (another co-founder: Rolling Stone political columnist Matt Taibbi), which still lives on, online. More recently, the duo were widely credited with having connected the Koch Brothers to the Tea Party (after Playboy all but erased from existence the original piece in which they initially made the connection for the magazine).

The Accused

Adam Davidson, the co-host and co-founder of NPR's Planet Money. Prior to Planet Money, Davidson worked for NPR as an international business and economics correspondent for NPR, and was a Middle Eastern correspondent for Public Radio International. Aside from co-hosting Planet Money, Davidson also has a gig as a regular columnist for The New York Times Magazine and, according to Levine and Ames, makes decent coin on the side with speaking engagements too. Here's his NPR biography. Here's Levine and Ames's biography of him.

The Charge(s)

First, that a notoriously hostile 2009 Planet Money interview between Davidson and Elizabeth Warren—the special adviser to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—was ethically tainted by Planet Money's financial arrangements with "the sole sponsor underwriting Davidson's Planet Money show and his salary." Levine and Ames argue that the sponsor in question—a financial services conglomerate—lobbied against the creation of the CFPB before it was created (and around the time of the interview), which is evidence of an insidious conflict of interest. Furthermore, they allege that Davidson is accepting speaking fees from the industry he covers for both NPR and The New York Times Magazine, something largely viewed as an unsavory, questionable practice by most journalists (and journalism institutions, which usually have guidelines against that sort of thing).

The Evidence

A Sponsorship Problem: Ames and Levine published a 2009 lobbying report signed by the financial conglomerate in question, GMAC (now Ally Financial), in which the company discloses lobbying against the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act of 2009, which created the CFPB that Elizabeth Warren now acts as a special adviser to. To them, this disclosure speaks great volumes about Davidson's coverage, particularly a 2009 interview between Davidson and Warren. At the time, Warren was lobbying for the act (as she was its architect), which set out to create an agency that would protect consumers from predatory practices by companies like GMAC/Ally Financial. During the interview, Davidson was so surprisingly hostile towards Warren that it famously warranted an apology from NPR's ombudsman.

[Ally (formerly GMAC), the consumer-lending arm of General Motors, is 74 percent owned by the government after receiving a $17.2 billion bailout. Even as other financial firms have emerged from the darkest days of the financial crisis, Ally has remained in the government’s debt, due to the struggles of Residential Capital, the Ally-owned mortgage lender that recently entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy.]

Meanwhile, Ally had sponsored the show since shortly after it had launched, in an arrangement that raised eyebrows when it was initially revealed. Ames and Levine note that at that time, Planet Money was the only NPR show with a single sponsor.

The Speaking Gigs: They've compiled some of Adam Davidson's "lucrative" speaking gigs, hosted and funded by some of the largest financial institutions in the world (JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs). While a widespread practice, it's one that in their eyes—and the eyes of many others—compromises journalistic integrity.

The Rules

We could not find the issues of sponsorship directly addressed in NPR's handbook, other than a section on the necessity of disclosures. But the issue has come up even after that section was added in. However: NPR's current ethics guide does mention avoiding speaking to groups where the appearance itself might put into question one's impartiality, along with participation in forums where "sponsoring groups or other participants are identified with a particular perspective." The policy of Chicago Public Media (which owns This American Life, from which Planet Money was spun off): "Journalists may not accept any form of compensation from the individuals, institutions or organizations they cover." Finally, the New York Times' standards and ethics guide urges staffers to be wary of speaking gigs "especially if the setting might suggest a close relationship" to the sponsor, and notes that gigs must be approved by newsroom management. The example they give: "An editor who deals with political campaigns might comfortably address a library gathering but not appear before a civic group that endorses issues or candidates. An environmental reporter can appropriately speak to a horticultural society but not to conservation groups known for their efforts to influence public policy."

Precedent

We couldn't find any examples of NPR ending a sponsorship relationship because of a radio segement or program's purview. That said, Planet Money's sponsorship agreement with Ally has come under question both internally and externally prior to this.

An NPR ombudsman concluded in December 2009:

[NPR senior vice president for news, Eileen] Weiss is correct that NPR has a large pool of credibility with most of its audience. But that pool is not infinite, and it can be diminished when listeners perceive a conflict of interest, even if one does not exist.

No action was taken then. This was nine months after Davidson's interview with Warren, which prompted an on-air apology from Davidson and an NPR ombudsman's column reprimanding Davidson. That column ran five days before Planet Money's deal with Ally was written up on AdAge.

Over at the Times, writers have indeed been punished or even fired for taking speaking fees. Thomas Friedman once had to return $75,000 in unapproved speaking fees. Times technology columnist David Pogue has come under fire multiple times for speaking fees and a trip to Disney World; he still writes there (other, less popular writers have been fired for taking free trips). Mary Tripsas, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, had a monthly column until she was fired for taking a speaking engagement. And Joe Nocera once came under fire for speaking fees, and he was given a pass as well.

What do other Times writers think of the policy? Ask Paul Krugman:

I do very little paid speaking now, and no consulting, because the New York Times has quite strict rules: basically I can only get paid for speaking to nonprofits that have no possible interest in influencing the content of the column. It’s a good rule — read Eric Alterman’s book “Sound and Fury” to see how speaking fees can corrupt pundits — though it meant that I took a substantial income cut to work for the Times.

In Davidson's Defense

Planet Money has indeed covered Ally once before, in a segment derided by an Ally publicist as "false" and "inflammatory." There is no empirical evidence that Davidson—who, in his words, has "nothing to do with the underwriting stuff"—has explicitly interacted with his sponsors in a way that would undoubtedly compromise his show's integrity. Levine and Ames have no proof of Davidson's pay for his speaking gigs (though there's been no denial that he was paid).

The Official Word

An NPR spokesperson refused comment to Ames and Levine. They also contacted Ira Glass of This American Life, who also did not respond to their request for comment.

The Observer contacted an NPR spokesperson for comment through their communications department on Wednesday evening. We asked why they didn't comment to Ames and Levine, if Davidson's speaking engagements are of concern to NPR, and if—in light of the lobbying disclosure form vis-à-vis Davidson's (as noted by their own ombudsman) surprisingly hostile interview with Elizabeth Warren—Planet Money's sponsorship by Ally Bank was a concern to them. At the time, a spokeswoman answered:

I expect we'll give you comment on why we didn't comment before, and perhaps on some of these issues you raise.

This afternoon, the same NPR head of communications Dana Davis Rehm responded:

Adam reviews all his speaking engagements with his editors and we’re confident that none of them run counter to our ethical guidelines.

Beyond that, we don’t have any further comment.

When contacted Wednesday evening, a spokeswoman for the New York Times indicated that our call was the first she had heard of it; as of this afternoon, the Times was reviewing the issue, but had no official comment. UPDATE: On Friday afternoon, a spokeswoman from the New York Times emailed us with official comment:

We have discussed this situation with Adam and we’re confident that there has been no violation of our policies around speaking engagements and no conflict of interest.

When contacted by email Wednesday evening, Ames and Levine had this to say over email:

Until NPR answers these questions and fully discloses the nature of their relationship with Ally Bank, and their conflict-of-interest policy, everything else is a PR distraction. We have provided strong evidence of several very serious conflicts of interest. Evasions and distractions that avoid answering these allegations and questions, like the ones provided by their ombudsman back in 2009, will only reinforce our point about corruption at Planet Money.

They also pointed us to a March 2009 Columbia Journalism Review profile of NPR, which they provided as speaking to proof that "Davidson was in the very least intimately involved in the process of creating the show," which it certainly does. Again, that doesn't explicitly tie Davidson to Ally Bank's interests.

That said, Ames and Levine's takeaway isn't so forgiving:

This says pretty much everything you need to know about the gangrenous state of America's media, when two of the most respected media institutions adopt a mob strategy to protect their little racket.

At the very least, they have indeed made a compelling case that Davidson is—if not complicitly, then inherently—conflicted. Either way, it's a conflict that’s clearly uncomfortable to more than two people, regardless, and a few who'd rather not discuss it as well.

fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek

A spot fit for a radio star?

Chicago, it's really over. Sure, Ira Glass left a few years ago. Sure, he packed up the entire This American Life crew, said that he was never coming back, but all that time, he couldn't seem to settle down in any of the New York neighborhoods. And sometimes he even talked about how much he missed you, how he used to be able to get in a car and be anywhere in Chicago in 20 minutes. But now he's  gone and bought a condo at 159 West 24th Street!

Yes, Mr. Glass and wife Anaheed Alani paid $1.26 million for the one-bedroom apartment, a buy first spotted by The Real Deal.

The sponsor-owned unit, listed with Warburg brokers Herbert Chou, Joel Moss and Jocelyn Turken for $1.37 million, looks a little bland, or as the listing boasts, it "has all the charm suggested in its name." But we're sure the man who made a name for himself with the most un-NPR voice possible, only to launch a new generation of slavishly quirky NPR voices, will do something interesting with it.

The lofted apartment has high ceilings and a "windowed home office/sleeping area," making it "the perfect space to entertain or to enjoy a quiet evening at home." The building also has a shared roof deck. Maybe you can even see the Hudson from there? I mean, it's no Lake Michigan, and imagine what kind of place $1.26 million would buy in Chicago. But the Windy City wishes Mr. Glass and his new real estate every happiness.

kvelsey@observer.com

Ira Glass (Getty Images)

HBO is in development on a series based on a This American Life segment--material less capacious than, say, The Corrections (another upcoming HBO project) and yet as intriguing. The story is about a workaday fellow who tries to break out of his rut (very Nate on Six Feet Under!) by rescuing Mexican kidnap victims (very whichever-season-was-the-Mexican-compound one on Big Love!). The creative team is to include This American Life host Ira Glass (who'd previously adapted his format into a Showtime series), actor Owen Wilson, and Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas. We'll be looking forward to a story told in, like, 13 acts, rather than the usual three or four.

Daisey, performing "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs"

PRI's This American Life has retracted its most popular broadcast ever, "Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory," because it contains "significant fabrications," host and executive producer Ira Glass announced today. An excerpt of Mike Daisey's one-man show The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, it has been downloaded 888,000 times and streamed another 206,000.

Mr. Daisey said he regretted allowing his one-man show--a combination of "fact, memoir, and dramatic license" --to be billed as journalism.

"My mistake, the mistake I truly regret, is that I had it on your show as journalism, and it's not journalism. It's theater," he wrote.

In the play, Mr. Daisey talks about visiting the FoxConn iPhone and iPad factory in Shenzen, China. Upon hearing the segment, Marketplace China correspondent Rob Schmitz, who had already done quite a bit of reporting on Apple's supply chain, doubted the veracity of Mr. Dasiey's experiences. Mr. Schmitz tracked down Mr. Daisey's interpreter in Shenzen, and she disputed much of the material in the play.

The fabrications include one of its most dramatic moments, involving an injured factory worker operating an iPad for the first time (Mr. Daisey's iPad) with his mangled hand, and the allegation that he met many underage factory workers. (That one also snuck by this paper.)

"Daisey lied to me and to This American Life producer Brian Reed during the fact checking we did on the story, before it was broadcast," Mr. Glass wrote. "That doesn't excuse the fact that we never should've put this on the air. In the end, this was our mistake."

When This American Life fact-checkers asked for his interpreter's contact information, Mr. Daisey said her cell phone number no longer worked and he had no way of reaching her.

"At that point, we should've killed the story," Mr. Glass said. "But other things Daisey told us about Apple's operations in China checked out, and we saw no reason to doubt him. We didn't think that he was lying to us and to audiences about the details of his story. That was a mistake."

This American Life has dedicated this weekend's program to correcting the errors in the piece, including interviews with Mr. Schmitz, Mr. Daisey and his interpreter, Cathy Lee. Which actually sounds kind of like your typical, things-are-never-what-they-seem This American Life tale of ambition, human fallibility, and the vagaries of truth and art. The show's home station, WBEZ Chicago, has also cancelled Mr. Daisey's live performance at the Chicago Theatre on April 7 and is refunding tickets.

Mr. Daisey responded on his blog, in the style of John D'Agata in The Lifespan of a Fact:

I stand by my work. My show is a theatrical piece whose goal is to create a human connection between our gorgeous devices and the brutal circumstances from which they emerge. It uses a combination of fact, memoir, and dramatic license to tell its story, and I believe it does so with integrity. Certainly, the comprehensive investigations undertaken by The New York Times and a number of labor rights groups to document conditions in electronics manufacturing would seem to bear this out.

What I do is not journalism. The tools of the theater are not the same as the tools of journalism. For this reason, I regret that I allowed THIS AMERICAN LIFE to air an excerpt from my monologue. THIS AMERICAN LIFE is essentially a journalistic ­- not a theatrical ­- enterprise, and as such it operates under a different set of rules and expectations. But this is my only regret. I am proud that my work seems to have sparked a growing storm of attention and concern over the often appalling conditions under which many of the high-tech products we love so much are assembled in China.

And the show must go on, according to Cult of Mac, which got this statement of support from The Public Theater, where Agony is currently running.

In the theater, our job is to create fictions that reveal truth — that’s what a storyteller does, that’s what a dramatist does. THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY OF STEVE JOBS reveals, as Mike’s other monologues have, human truths in story form.

In this work, Mike uses a story to frame and lead debate about an important issue in a deeply compelling way. He has illuminated how our actions affect people half-a-world away and, in doing so, has spurred action to address a troubling situation. This is a powerful work of art and exactly the kind of storytelling that The Public Theater has supported, and will continue to support in the future.

Mike is an artist, not a journalist. Nevertheless, we wish he had been more precise with us and our audiences about what was and wasn’t his personal experience in the piece.

Update: An earlier version of this post said NPR's This American Life, it's in fact PRI's.