By Hannah Saad
Brian Reed, a producer with NPR’s This American Life, was looking for new story ideas when John B. McLemore, a resident of Woodstock, Alabama, contacted him to investigate a possible cover-up of a murder in Bibb County. Reed and McLemore corresponded through phone calls and emails and eventually, Reed traveled to Woodstock to meet McLemore and investigate the possible murder further. Through reporting and obtaining a detailed police report investigating the person McLemore accused of murder, Reed found no evidence of a cover-up. During these conversations and his trip to Woodstock, Reed found that McLemore was quite the character: McLemore was a horologist who was building a hedge maze on his property, and hated the town he was born and raised in, referring to it as a “S—town.”
Seemingly, since the investigation into a potential murder cover-up scandal fell through, then the initial idea for a podcast focusing on the murder would not come to fruition. Then, circumstances changed: Reed received a phone call telling him that McLemore had died by suicide. Thus, the topic of Reed’s resulting podcast, S-Town, focused on the life of McLemore, why a man who was clearly unhappy with his life would stay in the town, and how his death affected his friends and estranged family. It also looking into some of the more private details of his life, including McLemore’s method of suicide, his sexual orientation and McLemore taking pleasure in others inflicting physical pain on him. Issues arose from the release of this podcast, and McLemore’s estate sued and later settled with the S-Town production team for alleged violations of the Alabama Right of Publicity Act. The problem in this case is should the S-Town production team have pursued a story centering around a private figure’s life and manner of death?
This American Life, which is a part of NPR, produced S-Town, so the S-Town team likely would be subject to NPR’s code of ethics. The first item listed in NPR’s code of ethics is to be accurate. In the first two episodes of S-Town, Reed had interviewed McLemore before his death and talked with him about his life and some of what he despised about living in Woodstock. After McLemore’s death, Reed had to rely on interviewing close friends of McLemore to get a more rounded story about him. In this aspect, Reed did strive to obtain the most accurate information about McLemore’s life without having McLemore there to confirm or deny the information. NPR’s code of ethics also addresses treating with respect. This code of ethics has only one mention of the word “privacy,” which appears here: “with all subjects of our coverage, we are mindful of their privacy as we fulfill our journalistic obligations.” The code also advises NPR journalists to be cautious with potentially disturbing audio and video. In S-Town, two of McLemore’s friends disclose his method of suicide, but Reed did not advise listeners of this potentially disturbing content. One friend whom McLemore had called as he was dying shared what McLemore had told her as he was dying, what she told him to try and talk him out of taking his life and the sounds McLemore made before he died when he was unable to speak. In this instance, the audio interviews and recordings were not edited, so Reed was truthful and accurate in playing exactly what was said, but it came at the cost of potentially harming listeners who were not prepared to have a method of suicide disclosed to them. Reed also disclosed that McLemore told him off the record that McLemore did not consider himself to be heterosexual but did not want that information to be public. After speaking with friends of McLemore who did not think McLemore was heterosexual, Reed disclosed on the podcast that McLemore had told him this information off the record prior to his death, and that he thought it was important for listeners to know.
Looking at who wins and who loses, there are many stakeholders in evaluating whether the podcast needed to be conducted. There is Brian Reed, who hosted the podcast, and the production team of S-Town, who could win from releasing the podcast and handling controversial material, but could lose from lawsuits or other backlash to the podcast that could impact their future jobs and reporting. John B. McLemore is also a stakeholder; even though he is dead, it is still his life, story and secrets that Reed is reporting. Reed seemed to enjoy talking with McLemore and considered himself close enough with McLemore to attend his funeral. Reed thought that McLemore would enjoy having a podcast centered around him and used this loyalty to pursue the story. Other stakeholders include This American Life and NPR, who produce the podcast and could share some of the benefits or face some of the consequences of releasing the podcast; McLemore’s estate, whom even though McLemore was not close to the family that manage his estate, would still have to live with his private information being shared with the world; McLemore’s friends who spoke on his behalf and also talked about their own lives; the town of Woodstock which McLemore hated and that would be on display for millions of people who may not understand the culture of the town; Kabrahm Burt, whom McLemore had accused of murder; and the Bibb County Sheriff’s office, whom McLemore had accused of covering up a murder.
When looking at what it’s worth, privacy is the biggest value at play. In pursuing the story, Reed determined that McLemore’s life and interactions with his hated hometown were interesting enough to pique the interest of the general public; however, McLemore was unable to consent to the podcast series being created about his life because he was already dead by the time Reed had decided to pursue the story. In his recorded interviews when he invited Reed to investigate crime in Bibb County, McLemore was clearly interested in helping Reed and disclosed some details of his life to Reed. Reed uses these interactions and McLemore’s excitement talking with a journalist to justify and say that McLemore would have liked having someone report on him and his life. There is still a question of how much does the public need to know about a guy in a small town in Alabama who did not even trust banks: did listeners need to know McLemore’s method of suicide? McLemore had asked Reed to keep his conversations about his sexuality off the record, but Reed felt the need of the public to know this outweighed a dead man’s right to keep the information private. This comes into play with valuing truth. Reed also had second-person accounts of friends saying that McLemore confirmed to them that McLemore privately identified as queer. Reed used this, and the fact that McLemore identified as an atheist and therefore did not believe in an afterlife full of consequences for sin, to value telling the truth about McLemore’s sexual orientation to the audience over valuing McLemore’s privacy.
One philosopher that may be whispering in your ear when considering whether to pursue and run S-Town is William Frankena. His approach would have journalists consider which actions would produce the most good and least evil. He would advise the production team of S-Town to balance their journalistic duty with considerations of whether any of the possible actions could disrupt the balance of good and bad of any of the stakeholders involved. In this case, the production team would have to decide whether telling McLemore’s story and details of his private life would do more harm than good for all of the stakeholders involved. The release of the podcast did good for the production team, This American Life and NPR because the podcast was downloaded millions of times for people around the world to listen to. It was neutral for most of the residents of Woodstock because while some were amused that the town was gaining notoriety, McLemore’s portrayal of the town offended some other residents. The most harm came to the family and executors of McLemore’s estate, who sued for exposing private details about McLemore’s life.
Another philosopher to consider in this situation is WD Ross. Ross would have the production team determine which actions it could take, and which prima facie duties it could use to justify its actions. The actions the team could have taken are to not pursue the story of McLemore, who was a private citizen; release the podcast, but make its intentions clear about what the podcast is about and put disclaimers and warnings with episodes that contain graphic details; or, pursue McLemore’s story and run the podcast as is. The three prima facie duties at play in this situation are non-maleficence, fidelity, and beneficence. The production team should not purposefully cause harm in the making of this podcast. The goal of the podcast should be to either inform or entertain the audience with a story about a guy who did not fit in his town, and some of content, like including his method of suicide and implying that McLemore may have taken pleasure in inflicting pain on himself or having others inflict pain on him could harm McLemore’s family reputation or McLemore’s legacy in the town, even if Reed believes that McLemore would not think of his afterlife or salvation being affected. The team also has to weigh whether breaking a promise to McLemore would be outweighed by trying to make the world a better place by telling about a man whose sexuality was closeted. Ross would probably advise the team to take precautions in releasing the podcast.
Personally, I would not have pursued the story on McLemore to the extent that the S-Town team did and would not have released the podcast. In this case, I am more guided by Frankena’s guide of balancing duty with doing good, and I do not think that the journalistic duty to pursue truth in all situations justifies putting a dead man’s demons on display for the entertainment of others. McLemore was not a public figure in life, and I do not think that sharing details of his death and why he felt he did not fit in the world do enough good to justify releasing the podcast. Since the podcast is already out in the world though, I think the S-Town team could follow some of Ross’s guidelines, and edit the episodes to include warnings about graphic descriptions of McLemore’s suicide and make the intentions of the podcast clear from the start. The first two episodes focus more on a potential murder investigation than it does on McLemore, and listeners were initially led to believe that is what the podcast focused on. The production team does not need to edit the content of the podcasts since it has already been released and listened to millions of times, but going back and better informing listeners and alerting them to the potentially disturbing content could do more good to potential future listeners who could then decide ahead of time whether they want to hear some graphic details of a man’s death.
Link to S-Town and Episode Transcripts: https://stownpodcast.org/