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Thread: 'This American Life' retracts Foxconn report

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    'This American Life' retracts Foxconn report

    http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/16/te...tml?hpt=ias_c2

    Among the many facts Daisey fabricated, according to PRI, were the number of Foxconn factories he visited, the number of workers he spoke with, as well a major lie about meeting with a number of workers who claimed to have been poisoned by chemicals used on iPhone assembly lines."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," the show's host, Ira Glass, wrote in a blog post on Friday. "That doesn't excuse the fact that we never should've put this on the air. In the end, this was our mistake."
    The retraction came even as consumers lined up Friday to buy Apple's latest iPad amid protests over its treatment of workers -- protests that did little to dampen sales.
    Public debate rages on about working conditions inside of Foxconn's Chinese factories, which have for years been the subject of reports that employees endure long hours and unsafe working environment.

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    In a press release, This American Life said that when asked, Mike Daisey's Chinese interpreter had disputed one of the show's most dramatic moments - Mr Daisey's claim to have met underage workers employed by Foxconn, a key Apple manufacturer.

    The release also said Cathy Lee, the interpreter, had called into doubt an account of a meeting with a man who had been badly injured while making iPads.

    It said Mr Daisey had described letting the man "stroke" the tablet's screen "with his ruined hand" prompting the worker to remark: "It's a kind of magic."

    But it said that when questioned, Ms Lee had said "nothing of the sort occurred".

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17405011

    It seems there are valid concerns about the Foxconn factories but this radio program badly bungled the report.

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    Question

    Now dey gonna come over here an' drive people to suicide...

    Foxconn Int planning to open factories in US
    Sat, Nov 10, 2012 - MODEL: The company’s chairman said he was planning to invite American engineers to his factories to demonstrate how to set up facilities that use automated equipment
    Foxconn International Holdings, the Taiwanese manufacturer that has become one of the world’s largest employers thanks to booming demand for the Apple Inc products it assembles, is reportedly planning to open factories in the US. With an 800,000 strong workforce largely based in China, Foxconn is one of the businesses that has profited from the decline of Western manufacturing. Now the firm is apparently planning to reverse the labor drain by opening factories in the US. As labor costs surge in its home market Foxconn has been looking overseas for opportunities and sources have told Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes that the company is evaluating US cities including Detroit and Los Angeles.

    The news should cheer US President Obama, who has promised to create 1 million new manufacturing jobs over the next four years. However, Foxconn will have to adapt its formula because the US does not have armies of workers willing to survive on a few hundred dollars a month and live in dormitories as its Chinese staff do. In Foxconn’s huge assembly halls in China, iPhones and iPads are largely put together by human hands, with very little automation. In the US, sources say Foxconn will specialize in flatscreen TV sets, which are easier to assemble with the help of robots. Apple has for some time been planning to make an Internet-connected television set, which would essentially combine a TV screen with a computer. If the work is contracted to Foxconn’s rumored new factories, the iTV would be the first Apple product made in the US for some years.

    The company declined to comment on its plans, but chairman Terry Gou revealed this week he was planning to invite dozens of American engineers to his factories in Taiwan and China to learn about manufacturing. Gou told a business meeting in Taipei on Wednesday that he did not believe Obama could succeed in moving production lines back to the US because Americans have outsourced those jobs for too long. However, he hoped Americans could learn how factories are operated so they can return home to set up facilities with automated equipment. Gou said he was already in discussion with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about establishing an exchange program. Foxconn will have to adapt its working conditions to operate in the US market. Worker suicides, industrial accidents and riots have dogged its Chinese plants, which were recently discovered to be employing workers as young as 14.

    Apple chief executive Tim Cook was prompted in January to appoint an external auditor, the Fair Labor Association, to evaluate conditions throughout its supply chain after a string of workers killed themselves and there was a lethal explosion at the company’s Chengdu plant, thought to have been caused by combustible dust. The company has cut overtime hours and announced a near doubling of salaries in China in recent months. It already has eight factories in Brazil and in September it signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Sao Paolo government to invest US$14 million in a technological industrial plant. Gou founded what is now Foxconn in 1974 with US$7,500 borrowed from his mother. The company listed in Taipei in 1991 and its largest single plant in Shenzhen, China, employs hundreds of thousands of people.

    http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/.../10/2003547301

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    well, one way or another that will drive the unemployement % down ?

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