It’s been a strange year for podcasts. Serial, the original 2014 blockbuster from the United States, was back in the news when its protagonist, Adnan Syed, had historic murder charges against him “vacated”. But Serial’s update episode glossed over the flaws in their original reporting, gaps instead plugged by the rival lawyer-hosted podcast Undisclosed.
In Australia, The Teacher’s Pet gave oxygen to the cold case of Lynette Dawson, but what a judge called its “prejudicial, sensationalist and inflammatory” style could have caused the eventually convicted murderer, Chris Dawson, to escape prosecution.
