Woz defends the indefensible -- Mike Daisey
Disgraced playwright Mike Daisey has support from a somewhat unexpected source: Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak. In an interview with CNET on Monday, Wozniak says that he saw "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" last year and believes that Daisey is not anti-Apple. Woz also claims he said this to Steve Jobs before he passed away last October.
"A lot of performing arts...what actors do is to try to dramatize issues and events that are real", Woz says. "When you're watching Stephen Colbert and 'The Daily Show' not everything they say is factual but what they're presenting is real. It's a method of presentation that brings issues and ideas more to your awareness".
Woz avoids discussion on the issues surrounding the journalistic viability of Daisey's lies, or why the man decided to market them as fact to "This American Life". It is here where Wozniak looks extremely foolish for sticking up for somebody who has played loose with the truth.
As I said yesterday, the central problem here is that Daisey took a real-life problem and made such massive fabrications that it muddied the true issue. He then marched around promoting the show -- like on Real Time with Bill Maher -- where he continued to spout these same lies and presented them as fact.
This isn't the first time either that Daisey has taken way too much poetic license in his performances. I learned yesterday from an Amazon co-worker that Daisey's show on his time at Amazon, "21 Dog Years", most likely contained some significant misrepresentations of truth as well.
When I read that last night, I couldn't believe it. This guy has all but made a career on doing the same thing we're accusing him of now? After that, I didn't feel so bad about criticizing him, since "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" is apparently just par for the course.
Woz looks foolish comparing this to Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart. When we watch those programs, we know it's satire. You know some of it is made up before you even watch. At no time has Daisey ever in his show warned the audience of the same, and his public statements up until he was confronted did not either.
It is not clear to me why Wozniak would stick his neck out and look completely foolish as a result. I know he cares about the issues when it comes to China and Apple, but read this statement and you have to wonder where he's been the past half decade or so:
"I think his monologue has influenced Apple to take steps in that direction the best they can ...I applaud Mike Daisey because of the attention and understanding he has brought to this".
I am floored by this one. Hey Woz, have you been paying attention to the news? Apple addressed this in 2006 -- over a half-decade before Daisey started cheapening the issue of workplace conditions in China. He has nothing to do with this. Actually it was the media back then that did proper journalistic investigation to get Apple to cave.
Supporters of Daisey -- especially Steve Wozniak -- have to begin to understand the damage that lying does to a true issue. Hiding behind theater or art to do so is not an excuse. There is a difference between "Pirates of Silcon Valley" (Woz specifically mentions this movie) and "The Agony & Ecstasy of Steve Jobs".
The former tells the story pretty much correctly, but obviously fills in some of the personal interactions with dramatization. The latter fabricated a first-person account and presented it as fact to unsuspecting audiences. Half-truths are still lies. Apple took damage to its reputation as a result, and has a right to be upset.
Why Steve Wozniak of all people is now defending him is beyond me, but I'd imagine poor Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave.
Photo Credit: Ed Schipul