History Main / TrashyTrueCrime

* ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'': In "[[Recap/CastleS1E8Ghosts Ghosts]]", Castle is joined in shadowing Beckett's detective squad by Lee Wax, a true crime writer, when Cynthia Dern, a former EcoTerrorist whose memoir she was ghostwriting, is found drowned in a bathtub full of oil. Wax is briefly suspected of being the killer, on the theory that she realized there were a lot of holes in Dern's version of her group's bombing of an oil tanker and didn't want the reputational damage; however, her alibi of dinner with her publisher checks out. [[spoiler:Castle realizes later that Wax leaked Dern's story to her [[TheAtoner remorseful]] old comrade Susan Mailer, who had been believed dead in the bombing, hoping she would go public and get the remorseless Dern arrested so Wax could get out of her contract and write a better story about the fugitive terrorist being brought to justice. Instead Dern tried to murder Mailer and [[CrimeOfSelfDefense was killed in self-defense]]. In retaliation, Castle revokes Wax's access to the team and tells her she's going in one of his books as a bad guy.]]

-->'''Stuart:''' Pulling it all up for what, eh? You want an award? A pat on the back?

* Lou Bloom, the epynomous ''Film/{{Nightcrawler}}'' is a sociopathic opportunist who starts filming accidents and crime scenes for a local TV station, and in interest of [[IfItBleedsItLeads more compelling footage]], starts sneaking into crime scenes past the police, rearranges items, and even bodies to get better shots, and even [[spoiler:sets up his rival and later his assistant to die]].

* ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'': During the serial killer convention, the Corinthian notices that the re is a man going around claiming to be a serial killer called Bogeyman, but the Corinthian knows Bogeyman is dead. Corinthian, Nimrod and Flay-by-Night take him prisoner, and find out he is the Philip Sitz, editor and sole writer of a [[LuridTalesOfDoom small print magazine]] called ''Chaste'' and a [[BigBadWannabe Wannabe Serial Killer]], and had snuck his way into the convention to learn from the assembled {{Serial Killer}}s. The trio decide to teach him by torturing him to death.

** ** In Episode 8, when Lionel and his attorney mention Ed Gein to Jeffrey in an attempt to talk him into an insanity plea, Jeff recalls reading about Gein in a comic book. Both Lionel and the attorney are dumbfounded at the idea that someone would write a comic book about a real life killer's crimes.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS32E6PodcastNews "Podcast News"]] has Kent Brockman quit his job as news anchor to start a true crime podcast about an ongoing investigation about the death of actress Vivienne St. Charmaine, implicating Grampa Simpson as the culprit. Kent's podcast ''Guilty Grampa'' proves to be an instant success and Kent starts milking the case and the podcast for all it's worth, making merchandise for it. Meanwhile, the podcast's fans have formed an angry mob outside the Simpsons household, and the podcast's popularity convinces Grampa himself that he was guilty. [[spoiler:He's not; Vivienne was still alive and this was all part of an InsuranceFraud scheme that Abe forgot about.]]

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': In "[[Recap/CastleS1E8Ghosts Ghosts]]", Castle is joined in shadowing Beckett's detective squad by Lee Wax, a true crime writer, when Cynthia Dern, a former EcoTerrorist whose memoir she was ghostwriting, is found drowned in a bathtub full of oil. Wax is briefly suspected of being the killer, on the theory that she realized there were a lot of holes in Dern's version of her group's bombing of an oil tanker and didn't want the reputational damage; however, her alibi of dinner with her publisher checks out. [[spoiler:Castle realizes later that Wax leaked Dern's story to her [[TheAtoner remorseful]] old comrade Susan Mailer, who had been believed dead in the bombing, hoping she would go public and get the remorseless Dern arrested so Wax could get out of her contract and write a better story about the fugitive terrorist being brought to justice. Instead Dern tried to murder Mailer and [[CrimeOfSelfDefense was killed in self-defense]]. In retaliation, Castle revokes Wax's access to the team and tells her she's going in one of his books as a bad guy.]]

* ''Film/{{Halloween 2018}}'' depicts its pair of true crime podcasters as exploitive, opportunistic, and foolish. While the movie largely operates under the assumption only Michael truly understands how his mind and motives work, the podcasters were almost certainly poking the bear when they tried to communicate with him and presented his old mask.

** The anime adaptation of the spin-off novel ''The Ghost Passenger Ship Murder Case'' (incidentally, a SequelEpisode to the aforementioned ''Lake Hiren'' case) makes Yoshikazu Akai, who in the original novel had been a humble photographer, into one of these. As a magazine writer, he had written a no holds barred exposé about an accident at sea several years ago, blaming the accident on the Captain of one of the vessels being drunk at the wheel with little evidence. As a result, he's [[DeathByAdaptation pushed off a cliff]] by the culprit, [[spoiler: the slandered captain's daughter]], who had no grudge with him in the original book.

** ''Film/Scream1996'' presented ImmoralJournalist Gale Weathers]] this way, as she had made her fame off covering Maureen Prescott's rape and murder in a way that centres Cotton, who, Sidney believed, committed the murder. She also follows Sidney (who is around seventeen at the start of the series) around, confronting her repeatedly and trying to mine her trauma for more content. However, this is also presented firmly as JerkassHasAPoint, as Gale is right that Cotton is wrongly accused. Though she and Cotton don't cover themselves in glory when they respond to being vindicated by stalking Sidney at college and trying to ambush her into an interview.
** ''Film/Scream4'' implied to be what Jill is courting at the end, [[spoiler:when she believes that there's NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity and frames herself as the victim of a massacre, killing her friends and boyfriend(s), solely to be front and centre as a Sidney {{expy}} to a new wave of exploitative content. She even notes that she had to film the massacre, because]] nobody wanted to read about the gory details anymore -- they had to ''see'' it.

** ''Literature/DarkPlaces'': True crime fans are about the only people who'll give Libby money or attention, two things she badly needs. Lyle's Kill Club are full of people who ask invasive questions, and she notes that she's frequently tracked down by women who are in love with Ben and believe in his innocence. She describes them as creepy, voyeuristic, and invasive, as well as ugly. However, [[spoiler:they're right both about Ben's innocence and about the existence of the "Angel of Debt", a SerialKiller they theorize exists.]]

*** When Laurie first approaches Rosemary about featuring Susan's case on ''Under Suspicion'', Rosemary tells Laurie that she's been "burned" before by people who claim they want to help solve her daughter's murder, but just ended up sensationalising it and making up all kinds of wild theories without a shred of evidence, including suggesting Susan was sleeping around with numerous men. Laurie finds a true crime blog covering the murder that Rosemary had agreed to be interviewed for, which is poorly researched, focuses on the most lurid details and also strongly implies Susan had a sexual liaison with Frank Parker to get the role she was auditioning for, which "went wrong" and resulted in her death, while providing absolutely no proof anything of the sort happened.

*** Laurie is able to [[DefiedTrope reassure Rosemary]] that the aim of ''her'' show is to remind viewers Susan was a real person who lost her life, and to try to uncover what actually happened to her so her loved ones can have justice and closure. Laurie specifically demands that they focus more on things like establishing the timeline of Susan's last movements and the alibis of the suspects, rather than going into the graphic details of how she was killed. They also end the finished episode with Alex reminding viewers that while the victim became known as Cinderella, her real name is Susan and that's who they hope the viewers will remember her as.

** Zigzagged. Mabel, Charles, and Oliver are all sympathetic fans of true crime who start their own true crime podcast upon the death of their neighbor, Tim Kono. Though somewhat attention-seeking, they are portrayed very sympathetically.

* ''Podcast/TheLastPodcastOnTheLeft'' has a running gag where, when talking about decades-old that attracted morbid attention from the public, one of the hosts will ask, "But why true crime now?", in a snobby tone. (One such example occurs when talking about serial killer Belle Gunness' farm being invaded by curious locals after news of her murders came up.) Apparently, the joke originated from a judgmental interviewer who asked the hosts why the genre became so popular in the 2010s, when incidents like the aforementioned Gunness "fans" [[OlderThanTheyThink have existed for decades, if not centuries]].

* A more lighthearted version in ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}''. Buster starts to get into podcast stories and decides to make one of his own. However, his content isn't all that interesting until he starts investigating D.W.'s missing cereal who she blames Arthur for. While investigating, Buster seems more interested in getting content for his podcast than helping Arthur. Later he finds that Pal was the one who ate D.W.'s cereal and debates on whether he should lie that Arthur did it because it is more exciting than the truth. Thankfully he decides to do the right thing and tell the truth about the crime.

** Said assistant, Poppy White, turns out to be no better. [[spoiler: She ''is'' the missing person from the podcast that Cinda plagiarized, having faked her own disappearance and given Cinda the idea to investigate it. Furthermore, she murdered Bunny Folger and framed the main trio for it with the intention of achieving success as a true crime podcaster by reporting on them.

* ''Series/BlackMirror'' - "[[Recap/BlackMirrorLochHenry Loch Henry]]". The show's theme is about the contemporary fascination with TrueCrime. Pia takes a detour to the farm where they found the bodies and pitches a documentary about it instead, because their original idea might have pleased niche documentarians but didn't have mass appeal. In their unethical efforts to do so, Pia finds that the truth is ''even worse'' -- [spoiler:that Davis' mother and father were the killer's conspirators -- and dies for it.]] And then it all becomes a sensationalized TrueCrime doc anyway, with a dramatization on the way. The whole experience destroys Davis emotionally.

* Given ''Literature/TheCinderellaMurder'' revolves around a murder that occurred in Hollywood, it's almost a given that part of the focus is on sensationalistic and insensitive media coverage of crime.
** When Laurie first approaches Rosemary about featuring Susan's case on ''Under Suspicion'', Rosemary tells Laurie that she's been "burned" before by people who claim they want to help solve her daughter's murder, but just ended up sensationalising it and making up all kinds of wild theories without a shred of evidence, including suggesting Susan was sleeping around with numerous men. Laurie finds a true crime blog covering the murder that Rosemary had agreed to be interviewed for, which is poorly researched, focuses on the most lurid details and also strongly implies Susan had a sexual liaison with Frank Parker to get the role she was auditioning for, which "went wrong" and resulted in her death, while providing absolutely no proof anything of the sort happened.
** Brett Young initially tries to persuade Laurie to investigate the case of a murdered child beauty pageant queen, saying that "Every time we have an excuse to show those adorable pageant videos, our ratings skyrocket". Laurie finds the idea distasteful, especially as the victim is a child, and points out that not only has the case already been picked over by journalists numerous times, there aren't even any plausible suspects for them to investigate, which defeats the purpose of featuring the case on a show called ''Under Suspicion''; Brett says they can just find the witnesses and have Alex Buckley grill them about the girl's murder on-camera, which sounds a lot like harassment. Brett is reluctant to greenlight the Cinderella Murder case because he says that without the Hollywood connection, it's "just another cold case" and that if Laurie can't get acclaimed director Frank Parker to sign on, she should take the beauty pageant case instead.
** Laurie is able to [[DefiedTrope reassure Rosemary]] that the aim of ''her'' show is to remind viewers Susan was a real person who lost her life, and to try to uncover what actually happened to her so her loved ones can have justice and closure. Laurie specifically demands that they focus more on things like establishing the timeline of Susan's last movements and the alibis of the suspects, rather than going into the graphic details of how she was killed. They also end the finished episode with Alex reminding viewers that while the victim became known as Cinderella, her real name is Susan and that's who they hope the viewers will remember her as.

* ''Film/{{Sinister}}:'' Though Ellison is a fairly sympathetic protagonist with a respectable writing career, several elements of the plot cast shadows on his character and profession. Despite his claims otherwise, it's clear that his only motivation in writing his true crime book is to revive his flagging career. At least one of his previous books had incorrect conclusions that damaged the case. The sheriff tells Ellison that his decision to move into the victims' house for research was extremely tasteless. And when Ellison uncovers bombshell evidence in his investigation, he makes the deeply questionable decision to not call the police and keep the info for his book instead.

* ''Film/Sinister:'' * TrashyTrueCrime: Though Ellison is a fairly sympathetic protagonist with a respectable writing career, several elements of the plot cast shadows on his character and profession. Despite his claims otherwise, it's clear that his only motivation in writing his true crime book is to revive his flagging career. At least one of his previous books had incorrect conclusions that damaged the case. The sheriff tells Ellison that his decision to move into the victims' house for research was extremely tasteless. And when Ellison uncovers bombshell evidence in his investigation, he makes the deeply questionable decision to not call the police and keep the info for his book instead.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': In "[[Recap/CastleS1E8Ghosts Ghosts]]", Castle is joined in shadowing Beckett's detective squad by Lee Wax, a true crime writer, when Cynthia Dern, a former EcoTerrorist whose memoir she was ghostwriting, is found drowned in a bathtub full of oil. Wax is briefly suspected of being the killer, on the theory that she realized there were a lot of holes in Dern's version of her group's bombing of an oil tanker and didn't want the reputational damage; however, her alibi of dinner with her publisher checks out. [[spoiler:Castle realizes that Wax leaked Dern's story to her [[TheAtoner remorseful]] old comrade Susan Mailer, who had been believed dead in the bombing, hoping she would go public and get the remorseless Dern arrested so Wax could write a better story about the fugitive terrorist being brought to justice. Instead Dern tried to murder Mailer and [[CrimeOfSelfDefense was killed in self-defense]]. In retaliation, Castle revokes Wax's access to the team and tells her she's going in one of his books as a bad guy.]]

* ''Series/OnlyMurdersInTheBuilding'': Zigzagged. Mabel, Charles, and Oliver are all sympathetic fans of true crime who start their own true crime podcast upon the death of their neighbor, Tim Kono. Though somewhat attention-seeking, they are portrayed very sympathetically.

* In VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry, [[spoiler:Eva and Ange]] Ushiromiya become victims of this, as without a clear answer about who committed the Rokkenjima Mass Murders, the public by default assumes that the only known survivor, [[spoiler:Eva]] did the murders and treats her as a villain. When the contradictory message bottles describing the murders are found, public speculation is further ignited and perpetuated by the creation of forgeries that pretend to be additional message bottles sent by the culprit. The speculation then leads to the public rooting around in [[spoiler:Ange's parents']] backgrounds worsening the trauma that she was already dealing with from losing her entire family and having a hostile relationship with her only surviving relative.

** ''Film/Scream1996'' presented Gale Weathers, the ImmoralJournalist, this way, as she had made her fame off covering Maureen Prescott's rape and murder in a way that centres Cotton, who, Sidney believed, committed the murder. She also follows Sidney (who is around seventeen at the start of the series) around, confronting her repeatedly and trying to mine her trauma for more content. However, this is also presented firmly as JerkassHasAPoint, as Gale is right that Cotton is wrongly accused. Though she and Cotton don't cover themselves in glory when they respond to being vindicated by stalking Sidney at college and trying to ambush her into an interview.
** ''Film/Scream4'' implied to be what Jill is courting at the end, [[spoiler:when she believes that there's NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity and frames herself as the victim of a massacre, killing her friends and boyfriend(s), solely to be front and centre as a Sidney {{expy}} to a new wave of exploitative content. She even notes that she had to film the massacre, because]] nobody wanted to read about the glory details anymore -- they had to ''see'' it.

** On one hand we have true crime writer Jake Bern, who announces he's writing a book purporting to tell the 'true' story of Rob Westerfield and how he was a victim of a miscarriage of justice. It looks likely he's being paid a ''lot'' of money by Rob's rich family to write the book and Rob is directly involved too, especially because he's seeking a retrial. Not only does Bern come off as sanitizing Rob's life, he also insinuates that Andrea, the 15 year old girl Rob was convicted of murdering, wasn't his manipulated girlfriend but a [[ReallyGetsAround "popular"]] girl who clung to Rob and may have been involved with lots of unsavory men. Bern further suggests that Ellie, Andrea's sister who was only 7 at the time and a key witness, was an emotionally unstable child with an over-active imagination and so wasn't a reliable witness, and feeds into the rumor that the intellectually disabled Paulie was potentially dangerous and obsessed with Andrea to the point of killing her. Lots of other journalists jump on this bandwagon too. [[spoiler:Bern's book gets pulled before publication because Rob himself undermines the subject matter; getting caught trying to murder a journalist whose sister you already killed will do that]].

* ''Series/AdamRuinsEverything'' 'Adam Ruins Sleep' has a brief joke where a true crime podcaster talks about how busy he is trying to solve a crime while treating like a game.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': In "[[Recap/CastleS1E8Ghosts Ghosts]]", Castle is joined in shadowing Beckett's detective squad by Lee Wax, a true crime writer, when Cynthia Dern, a former EcoTerrorist whose memoir she was ghostwriting, is found drowned in a bathtub full of oil. Wax is briefly suspected of being the killer, on the theory that she realized there there were a lot of holes in Dern's version of her group's bombing of an oil tanker and didn't want the reputational damage; however, her alibi of dinner with her publisher checks out. [[spoiler:Castle realizes that Wax leaked Dern's story to her [[TheAtoner remorseful]] old comrade Susan Mailer, who had been believed dead in the bombing, hoping she would go public and get the remorseless Dern arrested so Wax could write a better story about the fugitive terrorist being brought to justice. Instead Dern tried to murder Mailer and [[CrimeOfSelfDefense was killed in self-defense]]. In retaliation, Castle revokes Wax's access to the team and tells her she's going in one of his books as a bad guy.]]

* Zigzagged in ''Series/{{Hannibal}}''. Freddie Lounds is an ambulance-chasing ImmoralJournalist who blogs about gory murders, and has a particular vendetta against Will. She gets a cop fired for helping her, and she tries to turn Abigail's severe trauma into a bestselling book. ''However'', played with, because Abigail wanted her story told (if only so she could have money for the rest of her life) and agreed to write it with Freddie against Will and Hannibal's advice, and, as Freddie points out, she didn't force the cop to sleep with her -- in fact, she then offers him a cushy security job to thank him for his help.

** Cinda Canning, the famous podcaster that the group idolizes, is [[spoiler:perhaps the worst of the lot, as a podcaster who plagiarized from her assistant and an all-round BadBoss.]]

* In VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry , [[spoiler:Eva and Ange]] Ushiromiya become victims of this, as without a clear answer about who committed the Rokkenjima Mass Murders, the public by default assumes that the only known survivor, [[spoiler:Eva]] did the murders and treats her as a villain. When the contradictory message bottles describing the murders are found, public speculation is further ignited and perpetuated by the creation of forgeries that pretend to be additional message bottles sent by the culprit. The speculation then leads to the public rooting around in [[spoiler:Ange's parents']] backgrounds worsening the trauma that she was already dealing with from losing her entire family and having a hostile relationship with her only surviving relative.

* A more lighthearted version in ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}''. Buster starts to get into podcast stories and decides to make one of his own. However, his content isn't all that interesting until he starts investigating D.W.'s missing cereal who she blames Arthur for. While investigating, Buster seems more interested in getting content for his podcast than helping Arthur. Later he finds that Pal was the one who ate D.W.'s cereal and debates on whether he should lie that Arthur did it because it is more exciting than the truth. Thankfully he decides to do the right thing and tell the truth of the crime.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': The first ?Interdimensional Cable? episode made a nod to the genre with the ShowWithinAShow Quick Mysteries, in which murders were introduced and the killer admitted to the crime within seconds.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS32E6PodcastNews "Podcast News"]] has Kent Brockman quit his job as news anchor to start a true crime podcast about an ongoing investigation about the death of actress Vivienne St. Charmaine, implicating Grampa Simpson as the culprit. Kent's podcast ''Guilty Grampa'' proves to be an instant success and Kent starts milking the case and the podcast for all it's worth, making merchandise for it. Meanwhile, the podcast's fans have formed an angry mob outside the Simpsons household, and the podcast's popularity convinces Grampa himself that he was guilty. [[spoiler:He's not, Vivienne was still alive and this was all part of an InsuranceFraud scheme that Abe forgot about.]]