
Was the Art of S-Town Worth the Pain? - tintinnabula
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/04/was-the-art-of-s-town-worth-the-pain/522366/?single_page=true
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kevlar1818
An enthralling story. I highly recommend the podcast.

I mostly disagree with the author's apparent bias (that the podcast wasn't
"worth the pain" it would cause to its subjects). If Reed was doing his
journalistic duty in assuring consent of his subjects (which he seems to
unfailingly respect, as evidenced from the content of the podcast episodes),
then the subjects have consented to being "on the record," and have
essentially waived their right to private conversation.

It's trickier with the main subject of the podcast, given the circumstances.
He clearly consented to being recorded, but uncovering more of his private
life through the testimony of others could be against his wishes. I would
argue that the main subject would want this story told in its entirety, given
his raw disposition and tendency for taking a microscope to the problems of
the world.

Ultimately, I think it was an ethically sound journalistic telling of a
captivating story. I highly recommend taking a listen.

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mratzloff
1) I doubt the subjects were aware of the context their statements would be
framed in.

2) "I would argue the subject of the podcast would consent" is not the same as
consent. It's one thing if it's a public figure. The subject of this podcast
was not a public figure.

~~~
gjem97
Regarding 2, I'd be interested to know whether there was a different
legal/ethical standard for people who have died. Surely there must be a
journalism professor around here somewhere.

~~~
rhizome
Dead people can't be defamed.

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accountyaccount
I'm not going to spoil the podcast I guess, but towards the end I was
definitely really not enjoying how deep it was going. I think it pushed at
least an episode beyond the journalistic ethics I'm comfortable with.

I don't think any of us can speak for the subject of the podcast (and I think
it still matters despite how it ended up), but when I put myself in his shoes
I would not feel good about how far the podcast went.

~~~
gjem97
This is the bargain you make when you talk to a journalist, you get your side
of the story on the record, but you usually have no control over where the
journalist takes it. You're not comfortable with that, don't speak to
journalists. Barring outright misrepresentations by the journalist about their
intentions, I don't see anything wrong with this.

~~~
mratzloff
Some of them _didn 't_ speak to Reed and still ended up in the story.

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ianferrel
Maybe I'm misremembering: Who didn't speak to him and ended up in the story?

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mratzloff
The subject's mother, as I recall.

~~~
ianferrel
Was there anything damaging revealed about her? I don't remember anything.

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azhu
My two cents as a sufferer of emotional pain is that if the exposure of a
personal emotional wound, raw and without bandage, helps others heal then that
is worth it. This is speculation as I have no formal training in mental health
nor neuroscience, but it is my anecdotally formed opinion that any person
suffering from loneliness is sure to appreciate the palliative effects of the
outing of one's personal pain for others to relate to, thereby serving as both
a sword by which the personal enemy of loneliness is cut down and a bridge on
which to share the same power with others. To me, if one cannot understand
this then one does not understand loneliness nor how to dig themselves out of
it. Which John may not have.

Brian Reed intimately got to know and was deeply affected by John's story, and
it is shameful to me that others without understanding of neither their
relationship nor what John went through would think themselves judge and jury
on the morality of this production. It is reasonable to question them, but to
pass the judgement that Brian Reed is taking advantage of John for his own
journalistic advances is to not think very deeply about the podcast in my
opinion. Brian likely recognized this relationship between the sharing of
loneliness and its cure, and likely conjectured that this is what a healthy
version of John would have wanted.

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devindotcom
A lot of people have raved about this podcast, but I thought this critical
read of the thing was extremely interesting:

[http://hazlitt.net/longreads/airbrushing-
shittown](http://hazlitt.net/longreads/airbrushing-shittown)

Sounds like it's actually kind of messed up in whose perspectives it chooses
to accommodate and whose it fails to include. Very good (long) read.

~~~
tstrimple
Interesting read. Why say it in 500 words when you can say it in 6312.

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thebooktocome
I have deep reservations about the way S-Town was produced and edited.

I think it's likely Brian outed people who didn't want to be outed, who also
happen to live in a violently intolerant society. That's journalistically
unethical.

Brian also does a lot of bisexual erasure in S-Town and that's not cool
either.

~~~
edbrown23
I totally agree that things got pretty uncomfortable at times during the show,
and the Brian Reed covered some perhaps excessively personal things, but I'm
curious if you can go into detail on the bisexual erasure you mention. Are you
referring to the perspectives on John's sexuality, or were there other
instances I missed?

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thebooktocome
I'm referring specifically to how Brian talked about John's sexuality. While
it's true that he eventually reports John's own words on the subject,
otherwise Brian treats it as a dichotomy between gay and straight, and doesn't
even talk about bisexuals, or even men who have sex with men (MSM), which is a
distinct and important orientation in its own right.

~~~
dboreham
I didn't think it was his role to explain this. The listener can draw their
own conclusions from the material, I think.

~~~
thebooktocome
Sorry for believing that journalists should report responsibly even in an
informal podcast setting.

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fred_is_fred
I was actually pretty disappointed in the story, mainly I suppose because I
didn't really think there was a story. I can't really say more without
spoilers. As far as true crime goes, Crimetown is leaps and bounds better.

~~~
upvotinglurker
FWIW I don't think S-Town was intended to be true crime.

