“Alec Baldwin returns to podcast mic, with curious new format”

Robert Thompson, Trustee Professor of television, radio, and film in the Newhouse School and director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, was quoted in the Fox News story “Alec Baldwin returns to podcast mic, with curious new format.” Baldwin’s return to his podcast comes after the shooting tragedy on the set of “Rust,” a movie Baldwin was working on. Thompson, an expert on pop culture and celebrity, explained that Baldwin’s choice to do a true crime podcast will likely be successful given the popularity of the genre and the uncontroversial nature of the subject.

“Given the gravity of the ‘Rust’ situation, the first thing that Alec Baldwin does after that, you want to make sure it can’t be really in any way be tasteless, or that you could read something into it that could comment upon the ‘Rust’ [incident],” Thompson said. “I think a true crime show like this is probably a fairly safe bet.”