Read or listen to the entire ‘Apple exposé retraction’ episode of This American Life

In case you haven’t heard, one of the most popular episodes of “This American Life” ever was a bit fabricated. Not just a bit, it was pretty much BS and the show issued a retraction today. The episode was centered around Apple’s operations in China.

Here’s what TAL had to say about the issue earlier today:

During fact checking before the broadcast of Daisey’s story, This American Life staffers asked Daisey for this interpreter’s contact information. Daisey told them her real name was Anna, not Cathy as he says in his monologue, and he said that the cell phone number he had for her didn’t work any more. He said he had no way to reach her.

“At that point, we should’ve killed the story,” says Ira Glass, Executive Producer and Host of This American Life. “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.

Below you’ll find a full transcript of the episode called “Retraction” in which the show takes up an entire hour to discuss the errors in “Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory”. You can also have a listen here.

TAL 460 Retraction Transcript