Do you blame Sarah Koenig for the actions and speculation of the Reddit commenters?
I feel like she created an evil archetype of me and sensationalized my motives. It helped fan the flames of this story that people had already moved on from.
Have you reached out to anyone at “Serial” about the harassment?
Yeah, and I got an email back from Sarah about it. After I had posted the Facebook message, after you and I spoke on the phone, Sarah asked me for another interview.
From: Sarah Koenig
Date: Dec 24, 2014 6:56 AM
Subject: Your message
To: Jay Wilds
Hello Jay,
I saw your post on Facebook. I’m raising my hand once again, to ask if you will talk to me. As you probably know, the final installment of my story was last week, but if you wanted to talk, we could always do another episode, so that you can tell your story about what happened to Hae, and about what happened to you. My goal has always been to get this story right.
Please know that, to me, this case has never been an entertainment. I am mindful all the time that everyone involved in this case is a real person – not an archetype, not a character, not a stereotype – but a real person. I don’t know if you’ve listened to the podcast, but in every episode I tried to convey that, and to respect that.
If you change your mind about an interview, please feel free to contact me at your convenience.
Sincerely,
Sarah K.
I sent her an email back asking if she’d been leaking court documents or my personal information to Reddit. My wife had told me [that she thought] either Sarah or one of the producers was talking to a moderator on Reddit, and I felt that either Sarah or Rabia Chaudry [Ed. note: an attorney who is longtime friends with Adnan, and who first brought the story to Koenig] were giving confidential information to Reddit. I asked her if that’s true.
Then she replied. She said, ‘No,’ but I didn’t believe her. I did not think she was being honest with me. She wrote back [Ed. note: the following is an excerpt from a longer email]:
From: Sarah Koenig
Date: Dec 29, 2014 8:14 AM
Subject: Re: Your message
To: Jay Wilds
Cc:
‘You say I am not answering specific questions, but I am. Here is my answer, again, as clear as I can make it: Neither I nor anyone I actually work with – the staff of Serial and of This American Life, has EVER given anything to Reddit. Period. Nor did we authorize or deputize someone else to do so. It would have been stupid and irresponsible for us to have given anything to Reddit. We’re not that dumb, for one thing. And anyway, I don’t believe in crowd-sourcing an investigation. This is not a loophole or a sneaky way to have plausible deniability. It’s a straightforward, complete and true answer. As for Rabia – I’ll say it again: I don’t know. She might have posted it, but I don’t know. I don’t know because she hasn’t told me, and I haven’t asked. Again – do you want me to ask Rabia about this?’ [Ed. note: Chaudry say she ‘never’ posted personal information about Jay on Reddit.]
[…]
You seem to be under the impression that I want to do you harm, or have a secret agenda or have purposely withheld information to make you look bad, or have knowingly reported things that aren’t true. None of that is correct – in fact, the opposite it true. I realize you might not be able to accept that right now – or perhaps, ever – but my intention has been the same from the beginning: To get the story right, and to treat everyone fairly. There are so, so many things I could have reported, but didn’t, because they seemed potentially damaging or unfair, and they weren’t directly related to the crime. Not just about you, but about other people involved in the case. In other words, I’m not out to get anyone, or to damage anyone’s reputation. I only reported information that we deemed relevant to understanding the case.
It sounds like you don’t believe Koenig still.
I don’t.
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