Posted on Aug 24, 2022
The rise of the 'Morally Dubious Podcaster' in pop culture
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https://www.npr.org/2022/08/24/ [login to see] /only-murders-building-podcast
Only Murders In the Building, on Hulu, follows three fans of a Serial-like show called All Is Not OK in Oklahoma. By the end of season two, it becomes clear the show's host, played by Tina Fey, may be a cold-blooded murderer herself.
"I need something with famous people, and blood!" she wails to an assistant. "God, I need a murder. A good one!"
Fey's character is just one example of what seems to be a new pop culture archetype.
Call them the morally dubious podcasters.
In the movie Vengeance, B.J. Novak plays a self-serving journalist pitching a podcast about the death of a woman he briefly dated.
Only Murders In the Building, on Hulu, follows three fans of a Serial-like show called All Is Not OK in Oklahoma. By the end of season two, it becomes clear the show's host, played by Tina Fey, may be a cold-blooded murderer herself.
"I need something with famous people, and blood!" she wails to an assistant. "God, I need a murder. A good one!"
Fey's character is just one example of what seems to be a new pop culture archetype.
Call them the morally dubious podcasters.
In the movie Vengeance, B.J. Novak plays a self-serving journalist pitching a podcast about the death of a woman he briefly dated.
The rise of the 'Morally Dubious Podcaster' in pop culture
Posted from npr.org
TV
Video
Pop Culture
Podcasting
Posted >1 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."You can start a podcast tomorrow with very little equipment," she observes. "Just as you could go on the Internet and start a blog. And what you get from that, is a lot of people who are really good and really professional and some celebrities who see it as an easy way to extend their brand and control their own publicity. You have talented people who haven't been welcomed in traditional media spaces."
But you also get grifters, she adds, opportunists and people who don't "follow the rules you would want them to follow." To a certain extent, the morally dubious podcaster is the latest twist on a classic figure – the stranger in town. It's an expository device, a way to frame a story.
But right now, when numerous polls show trust in the media collapsing, the morally dubious podcaster has particular power. You don't know why she's here. Or what she may be mining from your truth."
..."You can start a podcast tomorrow with very little equipment," she observes. "Just as you could go on the Internet and start a blog. And what you get from that, is a lot of people who are really good and really professional and some celebrities who see it as an easy way to extend their brand and control their own publicity. You have talented people who haven't been welcomed in traditional media spaces."
But you also get grifters, she adds, opportunists and people who don't "follow the rules you would want them to follow." To a certain extent, the morally dubious podcaster is the latest twist on a classic figure – the stranger in town. It's an expository device, a way to frame a story.
But right now, when numerous polls show trust in the media collapsing, the morally dubious podcaster has particular power. You don't know why she's here. Or what she may be mining from your truth."
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