Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Arts myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Seven years ago, the journalist and producer Brian Reed released a podcast called S-Town. It told the story of a man named John McLemore from Alabama who wanted Reed to investigate an alleged murder in his hometown, where a man had been beaten to death. The murder case turned out to be a non-starter, but Reed stuck around to get to know McLemore, an eccentric horologist who lived out in the woods with his aged mother, a pack of dogs and a giant hedgerow maze in his garden. In the midst of Reed’s research — spoiler incoming here — McLemore died by suicide. Reed continued to make the podcast, which by now was not about a murder but about McLemore and his extraordinary life and death. The series was instantly addictive, drawing 40mn downloads in the first month of release, and won a Peabody Award. But it also opened Reed up to criticism which he hasn’t been able to shake off. There were those who felt he had intruded on the life of a man with clear mental health problems. The estate of John McLemore also filed a lawsuit against S-Town, claiming the podcast had used McLemore’s identity for commercial purposes, violating Alabama law (the case was later settled).Now Reed is back with a new series, Question Everything, which is ostensibly about the state of contemporary journalism, but opens with an episode about S-Town and whether those criticisms were merited. Reed talks to Gay Alcorn, an Australian journalist who wrote a review of the podcast in which she called it “morally indefensible”. Their conversation is good-natured but blunt, with Reed defending some decisions and agreeing with Alcorn’s reservations on others.Self-indulgent? Well yes, it is a bit. There’s nothing journalists love more than to sit around with other journalists talking about their Very Important Work — and I say that as a journalist who has been known to do exactly that. Plus, a show that takes off in the way S-Town did is always going to have its detractors. For Reed to be obsessing about this seven years later feels a little precious.There is a wider context to Question Everything, though, and that is the rise of online misinformation and the growing distrust of mainstream journalism. You hope this bigger picture will be more apparent in upcoming episodes in which Reed will talk to investigative journalist Barton Gellman and tell stories of reporters who have been threatened or prosecuted.In the meantime, there is a second episode called Drinks for Five in which Reed gathers together colleagues, including This American Life’s Ira Glass, Martin Luther King biographer Jonathan Eig and New York Times reporter Astead Herndon, to talk informally about their work. In other words, more journalists talking about themselves, but with added alcohol.
