CHICAGO - The public radio program "This American Life" is retracting a story broadcast in January about Apple's operations in China, citing "numerous fabrications."

The program says in a statement that Friday's broadcast will detail inconsistencies in the episode that originally aired Jan. 6 and is the program's most popular podcast.

The initial program was an excerpt from a one-man theatrical show by writer Mike Daisey. In it, he describes meeting poisoned and mangled workers at Apple's factories in China.

"This American Life" now says Daisey fabricated the workers and his interactions with them.

The discrepancies were uncovered by a correspondent in China for the NPR show "Marketplace."

Daisey says in a message posted on his website that he stands by his work and that what he does is theatre, not journalism.