I recently became a fan of “This American Life” and finally got to listen to the “Retraction” episode (see reference). Long story short, they ran a excerpt from Mike Daisey’s theatrical monologue about visiting China’s Apple factories. Afterwards, there was fact-checking, and it turned out a number of Daisey’s purported experiences (guards with guns, 12-year-old workers, underground unions meeting at Starbucks) could not be corroborated. This fascinates me because I love TAL’s documentary nature, and it’s so rare for a journalistic organization to admit they made a mistake. But not only that, TAL dedicated an entire episode to it, and gave everyone a chance to make a statement. When Daisey…
-
-
Pawn Stars Lies
Okay. Television. There’s a lot of reasons why you’re having trouble getting viewers. TiVo, over-saturation of options (not just cable, but Internet too), stilted writers, lengthy commercial breaks, piracy, and a slew of other things. So you’ve got to do your best to make people watch. Here’s the quickest way to get me not to watch. Lie to me. Para ejemplo, I was watching Pawn Stars the other night. During one of the commercial teasers, they were talking about a jet fighter G-Suit someone brought in, and they showed the “expert” they always bring in looking around it and it ends with: “And what’s this under the helmet?”. I, being…
