The Team Behind ‘S-Town’ Is Being Sued By John McLemore’s Estate

The creators of hit podcast S-Town are being sued by the estate of John B. McLemore, the main subject of the podcast.

The estate claims that S-Town exploited McLemore and breached his privacy for commercial gain without compensation nor consent.

The seven-part series, which is from the team behind This American Life and Serial, follows the life of antique clock restorer McLemore, who contacted journalist Brian Reed about an alleged murder in his hometown of Woodstock, Alabama. In 2015, McLemore committed suicide, and Reed continued to explore McLemore’s confounding, difficult life — the end result being S-Town, released last March.

It was incredibly popular: in four days, S-Town had 10 million downloads, and a film adaptation is now in the works. It was critically acclaimed too, with reviewers praising its literary brushstrokes of McLemore alongside larger questions of race, sexuality, gender and American history. Part of this was exploring McLemore’s own sexuality and mental health.

Now, McLemore’s estate is arguing that these details are a breach of privacy, given McLemore was not a public figure before the podcast. Given McLemore’s death, they argue he couldn’t consent to what S-Town became — something far beyond its original murder mystery concept.

“None of these ‘mysteries’ are of legitimate public concern, nor were these matters that McLemore contacted (Brian) Reed to investigate or write about. Instead, they generally involved the private matters of McLemore’s life,” the estate wrote.

“Additionally, McLemore never gave consent to Reed or the other defendants to broadcast the intimate details of his sexual orientation, and experiences, depressed thoughts, suicidal tendencies, financial affairs, physical and mental health issues and his interpersonal relationships with friends, family members and sexual partners.”

It’s not the first time concerns over ethics have been raised. Amid the positive reviews, critics questioned Reed’s journalistic integrity (Junkee even interviewed him about it) — most notably, The Guardian‘s Melbourne editor Gay Alcorn wrote that  “S-Town never justifies its voyeurism, and that makes it morally indefensible”.

When approached for comment by AP, S-Town’s executive producer Julie Snyder said the lawsuit “lacks merit”, writing in a brief statement that, “S-Town is produced consistent with the highest journalistic standards and we intend to defend against this lawsuit aggressively.”