The thing is, what Daisey does has no meaning or value unless it's also journalism.

This was the best take on the matter I've read so far--Mike Daisey as Jimmy McNulty:
http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/zunguzung…

Me thinks Apple addicts protect their dealer.

Which part of He's not a Jounalist don't you hacks GET?

@3 : you should read Ira Glass's bio before you go shooting your mouth off about his relationship to journalism.

When you act in the manner of a journalist and make the claim that what you're repeatedly saying is true (and that action should be taken in reaction to what you're saying, based on it being true)...then you really can't hide behind the "But, I'm no journalist" defense when someone actually checks to see if what you're saying is true...and it turns out that it's not.

And, as far as "watermarking" goes, there's a difference between the Cohen Brothers putting a "This is based on a true story" in front of "Fargo" (which wasn't) and Errol Morris. Daisey was pretending to be Errol Morris while shoving truth into the woodchipper.

@7 tell me when he gets a Press Pass.

Until then, you just sound like Faux News harping on his birth certificate.

Did Mike Daisey claim what he said was true?
Did it turn out not to be?

Call it whatever you want, WiS...but it means he's a liar. And it's hard to take liars at their word.

(And if I wanted to wage a battle of false equivalencies with you, I'd say that a more apt comparison would be comparing Mike Daisey with those Breitbart-sponsored fools who claim to have tricked ACORN and Planned Parenthood. "It's all performance art" after all. The only way your birther comparison would work would be if the birthers were right.)

@6, no you're not getting the postmodernism of @3. @3 is "story-telling" about Glass, because he was "performing a service by ... focusing attention on" how NPR "is about bullcrap" because it is "first and foremost about story-telling".

That is, it's okay for @3 to tell stories to illustrate how NPR is bad because they tell stories, which is what Mike Daisey is doing, but Daisey is good. In the end, it amounts to a sophisticated Foucaultian critique of the subjectivity of "truth". Or he's deeply confused, your pick.

(Seriously, @3: NPR is bad because it presents "stories" as journalism. But Daisey is good because he presented a story as journalism? Really? Ok: is NPR good or bad for allowing Daisey a forum to present a story as journalism?)

@8, Daisey specifically agreed with Ira Glass & TAL that his work would be presented and received as journalism, knowing that it did not meet the standards of journalism, and then lied during the fact checking process. None of this is up for debate.

Thanks for bringing in the Paul Mullins post: it is indeed terrific!

Ever since I first saw David Schmader's "Straight," his one-man show about his experiences at a gay-conversion retreat, I've been curious as to how much of it was literally true. Loved the show, and wouldn't feel cheated if I found he made it all up (this comment is not intended as a gotcha), but I've long wondered.

I'm nitpicking, but Mullins' distinction between theatre and theater is silly. Theatre is the British (and Canadian) spelling for both the venue and the work of art; theater is the American spelling. To pretend the different spellings are attached to different meanings is pretentious.

12: Hello! "Straight" started as an essay in The Stranger, and this version was journalistically factual.

But then I took the Stranger essay and did a new type of work making it into a show, and was then able to use 'the tools of the theater' (which for me meant futzing with chronology to streamline things, making composite characters, inventing shit, etc.)

And once I made the leap from essay to theater, I knew i couldn't present what I was doing as journalism or as factual truth on a news program. (Though, given the opportunity, it might've been tempting, especially if I were as evangelically inflamed as Mike, which I'm not, thank God.)

Clarification much appreciated, DS! One detail I vividly recall from "Straight" was that your roommate at this retreat (your mentor assigned to oversee and guide your de-gaying) looked like Brett Favre. I'm going to continue to assume this was a nugget of pure truth, just because I enjoy imagining sharing a room with a guy who looks like Brett Favre.

Well, now that so much time has passed, I can tell you that it was LITERALLY BRETT FAVRE.