Crime Weekly Podcast Crossed A Line

On Getting Away with Murder

Most known for re-telling notorious stories of murder and crime via YouTube and Apple podcast, Crime Weekly hosts, Stephanie Harlowe and Derrick Levasseur have crossed a line.

I am not referring to “laying groundwork” over six episodes for listeners to “formulate their own opinion” about convicted murderer, Scott Peterson. Crime Weekly using twelve hours to convey Lacey Peterson’s life in the name of “attention to detail” is the perfect example of exploitative. What makes six episodes “exploitative?” Crime Weekly has twelve opportunities for sponsorships and twelve-times the amount of commercials, between YouTube visual episodes and podcast audio episodes. If Investigation Discovery+ can provide details of the life and murder of Lacy Peterson and her unborn son, Conner in the 90-minute special, Crime Weekly should not require 12 hours to do the same.

I am also not referring to lack of transparency, claiming “demonetization” starting in December 2021. Hosts used “YouTube is demonetizing videos” as a commercial to sell Patreon, another source of income and way to financially exploit the victims covered in each episode. The transparency I would expect from a creator claiming “demonetization” would be receipts to prove this to be true, especially if this is baiting viewers. What’s more, demonetization does not mean the authors are not paid for the ads placed on their channel. Demonetization means videos are not recommended based on community guidelines and these guidelines are available to the content creators in the back office. Crime Weekly continues to make money on their YT platform through ads, now they will also make money from their 1,000+ Patreons, ad-reads at the start of each video and ads during podcast episodes. In total, Crime Weekly generates an estimated $30,000 per month and lead listeners to believe the show struggles to cover costs for their time for researching and recording. Don’t let Harlowe and Levasseur fool you.

I am not even talking about Derrick referring to Stephanie as their “mental health expert.” Harlowe was, allegedly, “a psychology major” in college, but it is unknown if she has completed college or has a graduate degree and licensing that would accompany this formal education. Specifically, Derrick asks questions about behaviors of murderers to which Stephanie outlines and puts her stamp of approval, claiming to be a mental health professional. If taking a course in psychology…