by Eric Ginsburg
You’ve heard of “Serial,” and maybe even listened to the hit podcast. And that’s great, because it’s incredibly engaging storytelling on an important topic that also helped normalize a medium. But if your interest in the case of Adnan Syed, the focus of the NPR-produced podcast, ended there, you’re cheating yourself.
The depth of investigative work by “Serial” is impressive, but after listening to a follow-up podcast called “Undisclosed,” you’ll be reeling. That’s because there are so many things about Syed’s case and how Baltimore detectives constructed it that remained unexamined by “Serial” that this newer series feels almost like a different story altogether.
Hosted by Syed’s family friend Rabia Chaudry — who is also an attorney and national security fellow at the New America Foundation — along with University of South Carolina School of Law Associate Dean Colin Miller and Volkov Law Group associate attorney Susan Simpson, the “Undisclosed” podcast has a decidedly different feel than “Serial.” It’s anchor-oriented, more discussion-based and it’s easy to tell the producers have less of a background in audio production and journalism. But the keen eyes of the three attorneys continuously uncover gripping, heartbreaking and enraging new facts with each episode.
Listeners may not hang on every word the same way they were glued to “Serial” as if it were their only source of oxygen, but “Undisclosed” is ultimately far more compelling. To say that the hosts’ ability to clearly explain legal jargon, parse out possible scenarios and draw parallels to other cases is compelling would be an understatement. You simply must — after listening to “Serial” if you haven’t already for necessary context — download “Undisclosed.”
This season of the podcast is still underway, but the hosts have announced their intentions to continue and focus on a different case for a future season. They’re looking for candidates, and the racketeering indictment and wrongful conviction of Greensboro’s Jorge Cornell should be a prime candidate.
All the elements of a fascinating story are there: a problematic — and now disbanded — police department gang squad, a federal informant and self-interested defendants-turned-state-witnesses with conflicting stories, a lack of physical evidence, a muddled decision by the jury, an outpouring of community support from clergy and college professors contradicting the state’s portrait of a criminal mastermind…. At the very least, Chaudry, Miller and Simpson should consider it.
Because if anyone can get to the bottom of what went so horribly wrong in Cornell’s case, I have to believe, after clinging closely to “Undisclosed,” that this podcast is it.
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You need to look a lot closer into this case. Undisclosed has been shown to consistently lie to make Adnan look innocent. Really, what’s the odds that adnan’s supporters are accurately portraying the case?
Exactly this. How much did you get paid to write this article? Undisclosed is crap. They bend the truth, withhold evidence, release quotes completely out of context. They have a financial motive to keep this going. Get off their dick.
It’s a serious allegation to toss out: 3 accomplished attorneys are lying consistently and publicly. It’s also absurd. The Undisclosed podcast has been reliably delivering well-sourced and documented information for many months; that you disagree with their conclusions about where that information leads legally doesn’t make them liars.
I’ve read this kind of criticism in a few places on the internet, but to my knowledge only one person has ever had the courage & honesty to put their own name and reputation on it. That person (Ann Brocklehurst) also had the courage & honesty to answer questions about her allegations on tape, where her errors in fact and logic were easily exposed.
Give an example. They give examples which is why so many people are more willing to take what they say in stride than a comment from someone like you. And it is what “are” the odds.
Not surprised to see “Lies’” comment here. This same “anonymous poster” shows up in the comments section of almost every Undisclosed/Serial related article to spout the same false claim that “Undisclosed has been shown to consistently lie” — as if hoping that repeating enough times, in enough places will sucker some people into believing it’s true.
Next the “anonymous poster” will be telling you the way to “look a lot closer into this case” is going to some specific subreddit, where they’ll claim “all the lies are exposed” but which is really a tiny group of imbalanced obsessives making dubious claims about things they have no credentials or expertise in low-rent, cover version of ‘jet fuel can’t melt steel beams.’
The irony is the only group making “Jet fuel” like claims are the folks at Undisclosed and their backers, the redditors are calling them out on it and they throw tantrums on their podcasts, then proceed to throw blindly claims in every direction the same way they claim the state did. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
What are the “two wrongs” you believe have occured?
– The State zeroing in on Adnan and not securing more evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it could be him and no one else.
– Undisclosed and Serial Dynasty shotgun blasting accusations of grand conspiracies and week to week, throwing accusations on people like Jay, Don, Mr. S, other felons, STEPHANIE! then quickly moving onto another suspect or theory after someones name has been dragged through the mud for the week.
Also:
See everyone? I told you this “Undisclosed lies” bunk was all about a tiny group of redditors obsessed with attacking the creators of the podcast.
“See everyone?” what? you haven’t proven anything, other than trying to marginilize the fact that alot of people do not agree with the tiny group of podcasters obsessed with attacking everyone and their mothers for 15 minutes of fame.
wow, the anti-adnan guilters can’t help but mindlessly troll their way across the interw3bs. i’ll bet both these comments are courtesy of the reddit nuts who’ve become obsessed with their hate for rabia and UNDISCLOSED.