I first became aware of the deceptive content within “City of the Rails” through several reviews left in the Appstore. Typically, these reviewers only gave it one or two stars – and thus have since been buried beneath a sea of adoration. However, back in April or May (can’t remember exactly when I listened to this series) they were much more prominent. I consulted Apple reviews in part because I was confused by several aspects of the production (the high volume of advertisements interrupting each episode, the absence of corroboration by Ruby or her father throughout the series, and being unable to locate any of Ruby’s music online) but mostly because I really enjoyed the podcast and wanted to see what others had to say about it. Through several comments left by other reviewers, I learned about the possibility that Ruby is not in fact her daughter’s real name, but rather Marissa Spoer – that she did not drop out of high school on graduation day after singing her song “made a fool of everyone” to a teary-eyed audience, but rather spent a brief period of time as a traveler while taking a break from college (and had in fact informed her mother prior to departure) – and that she had little or no connection to the travelers involved in the 2010 New Orleans squat fire.
One of the reviewers provided links to both a 2012 NPR Here and Now interview, where both Marissa (“Ruby”) talks about her time as a traveler, and a 2012 Boston Review article concerning the New Orleans Squat fire. A casual visit to these links will verify these claims – no great powers of deduction are necessary. Ruby’s name is actually Marissa Spoer, she did not drop out of high school to pursue a life as a traveler without telling anyone, and when asked if she knew anyone involved in the squat fire, Marissa answers, and I quote, “I knew one of the girls – a friend of a friend – but I never met her,” which sounds to me like she didn’t know any of them at all. But why does any of this matter? After all, it’s a podcast. Entertainment. Who cares?
It matters because this podcast is portrayed as a work of investigative journalism, told through the lens of a contemporaneous search for the narrator’s daughter, as she endeavors to understand the world into which Ruby has disappeared. And Danelle uses the story of her daughter’s disappearance to gain sympathy and support from listeners and those she interviews throughout the series: current and former travelers, musicians, railroad workers, etc. (It’s been a while since I listened to the podcast so the details are a bit fuzzy) but in essence, she uses the story of her daughter to gain access to a world which she, as an outsider, would most likely be unwelcome.
The existence of this deception also causes one to question the veracity of reporting with regard to other aspects of the podcast. Those of you who are or have been involved in railroad culture are better qualified to comment on the technical information included in the series. But as a casual listener, I would like to know the extent to which participants in this podcast were aware of truth of Danelle’s story.
After my last comment here on STP, I discovered an email exchange between Danelle Morton and Samantha Hodder (whoever that is), in which Danelle admits to blending the timeline concerning events surrounding her daughter’s disappearance her contemporary investigation of railroad culture. Search ‘City of the Rails Q and A with Danelle Morton.’ Here are a few of her remarks:
Danelle: “I've been looking into the rails for 14 years, ever since my daughter disappeared into the world of hobos. When I got the opportunity to do a podcast, I blended the timeline of the year and a half she was away with my present day forays into the train yard.”
[DM] “We hired a former hobo, now podcast sound pro, to go to the train yard and record sounds.” This raises the question, was that whole segment involving trespassing upon railroad property with the railroad worker also fabricated? And by extension, was this whole podcast perhaps scripted and recorded by actors in a studio?
With regard to the episode concerning the squat fire, Danelle states, [we] “found some other sources who had been in New Orleans at the time of the tragedy and used their recollections to re-create the atmosphere of the squat and give the listener a more vivid, audio-first sense of the reason hobos are drawn to New Orleans.”
And lastly, she states that she has “a helluva story with Dirty Mike, with whom I've been corresponding for 11 years. I've got more than 200 letters from him that describe every aspect of being part of a murderous gang on the rails, including hand-drawn maps of his murders.”
Perhaps, as this interview suggests, season 1 was merely a prelude to her story about Dirty Mike, whom she has been corresponding with for over a decade. In any event, this podcast and the deception it contains is particularly irksome (to me) and should receive far more criticism from the travelling and journalism community. Had the narrator framed this series as a docudrama concerning railroad culture that is loosely based upon the brief period of time her daughter spent riding the rails while on break from college, few listeners would take issue. But she doesn’t do this. Instead, she portrays this podcast as a work of investigative journalism – a medium concerned with the search for truth – yet the process by which she gains the trust, sympathy, and support of those she interviews, and the listeners supporting this podcast, is completely lacking in journalistic integrity. How are we to trust any of the content of this podcast or anything that is presented in Season 2?
