The New Yorker won a National Magazine Award for a 2018 article about a Japanese company that hires actors who pretend to be relatives of customers. The decision to give up the award comes after an investigation by the magazine that the three main topics of the story misled the author of the article and the fact-checking section.
The American Association of Magazine Editors, which administers the National Magazine Awards, announced the magazine’s decision Friday, more than a month after The New Yorker attached an editor’s letter to the online version of the article announcing the findings of his investigation. was made.
The magazine association said it “praised The New Yorker for his investigation into the story and his decision to return the award.” A New Yorker spokesman confirmed the award ceremony and declined to comment further.
The 9,000-word article, ‘A Theory of Relativity’, was written by Elif Batuman, a novelist and staff writer for the magazine since 2010. It won the award for best feature writer.
According to the editors’ appendix to the online version, the magazine’s findings are “contrary to fundamental aspects of the stories of these individuals and undermine the credibility of what they told us.”
Even the article’s opening rules contain falsehoods, the magazine’s investigation found. “Two years ago, Kazushige Nishida started hiring a part-time wife and daughter in Tokyo in his sixties,” the story began. “His real wife passed away recently.” The magazine found that Mr. Nishida did not provide his real full name to the magazine and that he was married.
The editorial note added that The New Yorker would leave the story on its website because the phenomenon of ‘renting’ family members’ in Japan is’ well documented ‘and because it offers an exploration of ideas of family in Japan and beyond. ”
The New Yorker said it began investigating the article after news organizations in Japan reported in 2019 that an employee of Family Romance, the outfit described in the article, ‘falsely pretended to be a customer of the company in’ a TV documentary. ‘ Me. Batuman declined to comment.