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Some documentaries don't just make headlines — they make legal history! Join us as we count down the most explosive documentaries that sparked massive lawsuits, from defamation claims to wrongful death suits and everything in between. Which filmmakers found themselves in hot water with the courts? Do you think these lawsuits were justified? Let us know in the comments below!
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00:00A wrongfully convicted man, 48 hours away from being executed, has got to be the great dream
00:06of any reporter anywhere. Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're discussing the major documentaries
00:12that got people sued. What did Tiger King get wrong? It got just about everything wrong.
00:20An elite water polo player, Operation Varsity Blues, the college admissions scandal. Many of
00:26you probably remember this scandal from 2019. A whole bunch of rich people, including a
00:31few celebrities, were exposed for paying bribes to get their kids into top universities.
00:37Huffman and Laughlin, just two of 33 parents, facing felony charges after allegedly doing
00:43whatever it takes to get their kids into top schools like Yale, Wake Forest, Georgetown,
00:49and the University of Southern California. One of them was former Old Navy and Staples
00:54executive John Wilson, who allegedly paid over $1 million to inflate his three kids' athletic
01:01achievements. Wilson was convicted along with the other parents, but his conviction was
01:05overturned on appeal due to mistakes made by the original judge.
01:09There are many things, but probably the most outrageous was how Netflix created a movie about
01:14this case, which included me. After Operation Varsity Blues was released in 2021, Wilson and
01:21his son John Jr. both filed defamation lawsuits against Netflix, claiming the kid really was
01:28an elite water polo player. We're not sure how they intend to prove that in court.
01:33Emotional distress, making a murderer. This was one of Netflix's earliest successes in the
01:39true crime genre, and it was a smash hit. The documentary strongly pushed the theory that
01:52Manitowoc County Wisconsin man Steven Avery had been wrongfully convicted of murder. After its release,
01:59former Manitowoc County police officer Andrew Colborne sued Netflix, the series' producers,
02:05and their production company for defamation, emotional distress, and negligence.
02:10Last week, a judge denied Netflix's request to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by former
02:16Manitowoc County Sheriff's Sergeant Andrew Colborne, who is featured in the series.
02:20Colborne claimed that the series led viewers to believe that he and other cops had planted evidence
02:25and implied improper conduct. He pointed to things like music and editing techniques that painted
02:31him in a bad light. Colborne lost the case, with the judge ruling that most of his complaints were
02:37nowhere near the legal definition of defamation. A conniving businesswoman. Crazy Sexy Cool,
02:43The TLC Story. This was technically a scripted biopic, but it was pretty iconic,
02:48and it did lead to a massive lawsuit. The VH1 film depicted hip-hop group TLC's manager,
03:01Perry Pebbles-Reed, as the villain of the story. Reed, in turn, sued its parent company, Viacom,
03:08for $40 million, alleging that the biopic made her out to be, quote, a conniving and dishonest
03:13businesswoman who exploited three young girls. Viacom tried to have the suit dismissed,
03:24arguing that all biopics take artistic liberties in their portrayals. A judge disagreed, and the
03:30two parties ended up settling out of court. Footage permission. Tiger King. If you're a
03:43know anything about this show, it won't surprise you to hear that Carole Baskin wasn't too happy
03:48with how she was portrayed in it. It was really hard, because I couldn't understand why people
03:53hated somebody who was going after animal abusers. I thought people loved animals.
03:58Through clever editing, the creators heavily implied that she murdered her husband. After season two of
04:04Tiger King was announced, Baskin and her current husband sued Netflix and Royal Good Productions for
04:10breach of contract. They argued that the producers didn't have the right to create a sequel season
04:16or anything else using the footage and interviews they originally filmed of Carole. Baskin was trying
04:22to prevent season two from being released at all. But, of course, if you've been following the saga,
04:27you already know that she failed. While the judge denied the Baskins emergency relief,
04:32she didn't reach the merits of their claim and said the court takes no position on whether the
04:36Baskins will be able to establish entitlement to a preliminary injunction.
04:40Who owns the story? The Thin Blue Line. This early true crime doc actually resulted in an innocent
04:47man being freed from prison. Randall Dale Adams was convicted for shooting a cop in 1977.
04:53You know, I don't know what the hell you people expected of me, but there's no way I could sign
04:59that. He left, he came back in 10 minutes, and threw a pistol on the table.
05:08After investigating his case, filmmaker Errol Morris believed that several witnesses had lied on the
05:14stand, and he even obtained a confession from another suspect.
05:17Well, what do you think about whether or not he's innocent? I'm sure he is. How can you be sure?
05:27Because I'm the one that knows.
05:29Adams' conviction was overturned, and he was released. You'd think he'd be grateful. Instead,
05:34he sued Errol Morris. Adams didn't want money, he just wanted the rights back to his life story.
05:40He'd sign them over to Morris while the documentary was in progress.
05:44You can hardly blame him. He got no compensation from the state of Texas for the 12 years he spent
05:50wrongfully imprisoned. His story was all he had.
05:54Manipulated footage. Under the gun. It took just nine seconds of this documentary to cause a lawsuit.
06:00Under the Gun was narrated by Katie Couric, and explored the gun control debate in America.
06:09After its release, pro-gun rights group the Virginia Citizens Defense League sued Couric
06:15and the filmmakers for defamation. They claimed that footage of the group's members was edited
06:20deceptively, to make them look bad. In one scene, after Couric asks them how dangerous people would
06:26be prevented from buying a gun without background checks, the film cuts to nine seconds of the members
06:31sitting silently, avoiding eye contact. In reality, they say they answered Couric's question right
06:37away. The suit was dismissed, but it's a lesson for the viewers. Documentaries are always edited
06:43to present a narrative. Lawsuit leads to new documentary, Bananas. Swedish director Fredrik
06:52Girton released this film in 2009, about a lawsuit filed by workers on a Dole banana plantation in
06:59Nicaragua, who allegedly suffered health problems caused by a pesticide.
07:03I do not like when other people are exploited. I've never liked it since I was a little kid.
07:09After the doc was screened at a film festival, Dole sued for, you guessed it, defamation.
07:15The company ultimately dropped the lawsuit just a few months later, and a court ordered them
07:20to pay the filmmakers' legal fees. But the most bananas part of this story is that in 2011,
07:26Girton released a second documentary called Big Boys Gone Bananas, all about how he got sued by Dole.
07:33And now a naive Swedish filmmaker is making this crook into a hero.
07:39Overzealous students got him wrongfully convicted. A murder in the park. A group of undergraduate
07:45journalism students freed a possibly guilty man from prison, and accidentally sent an innocent
07:50man there in his place. In 1983, Anthony Porter was convicted of two murders in Chicago's Washington
07:57Park.
07:58The eyewitness couldn't have seen it at all.
08:01They were heroes.
08:02Northwestern University professor David Protis and some students supposedly proved that Porter
08:07wasn't guilty, and got him released in 1999. The group believed a man named Alstery Simon
08:14was the actual killer. They hired a private investigator to help them coerce Simon into
08:18a false confession, which got him convicted.
08:21He tells me that a man is getting ready to die for something I did.
08:25A murder in the park explores what happened, and it played a role in getting Simon's case
08:30reopened. Simon was released in 2014, and almost immediately filed a $40 million lawsuit against
08:36Professor Protis and Northwestern University.
08:42Exposed to the Taliban. Retrograde. This powerful film documents the final months of the United
08:48States' two-decades-long war in Afghanistan. It closely follows a number of individual American
08:54troops, as well as Afghan soldiers working alongside them.
09:01Before its release, multiple members of the U.S. military warned that revealing too much
09:07information about the Afghans and showing their faces would put them at risk. They were right. Now
09:13that the Taliban once again controls the country, a number of the Afghani people featured in the
09:18dock have gone into hiding. Think of the absolute arrogance required to believe that the Taliban
09:23somehow would not find an online video which chronicled their ultimate triumph.
09:27One, a 25-year-old minesweeper named Omar Khan, was found by the Taliban, tortured and released, but he
09:34later died from his injuries. His widow filed a wrongful death lawsuit against National Geographic,
09:40Disney, and Hulu. Out of context. Reality check. Inside America's next top model. Remember what we
09:48learned from the Katie Couric lawsuit? Documentaries are always edited to create a tidy narrative,
09:54even though reality is rarely so cut and dry. Tyra Banks claims she was interviewed for the AMNT
10:05doc for three and a half hours, but only 16 minutes of that interview made it into the series. Banks
10:10says
10:11the footage was manipulated and taken out of context to portray her in an inaccurate and false light.
10:16In the new bombshell lawsuit obtained by Extra, Tyra claims the streaming giant manipulated her three
10:22and a half hour interview for the docu-series reality check inside America's next top model.
10:27She filed a lawsuit against Netflix and the doc's producers in June 2026. You might assume she's
10:33asking for a lot of money, but she's leaving her fate to the people. Banks requested a jury trial to
10:40determine how much she should receive in damages. Backfiring lawsuit? The Carter. The 2009 documentary,
10:55The Carter, was about the life of Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., better known as Lil Wayne, in the lead
11:00up to releasing his 2008 album, The Carter III. Reportedly, Wayne was delighted with the final cut.
11:06For me, for Lil Wayne, it began in New Orleans. However, upon its second screening at the 25th
11:13Sundance Film Festival, the rapper initiated a $50 million lawsuit against its release.
11:19Wayne claimed the Carter contained footage that he was promised would be removed.
11:23That'd be better for us as listeners. However, the judge threw the suit out. Regardless,
11:28the Carter had to resort to coming out on iTunes and DVD. In 2012, after further lawsuits between Wayne
11:34and the film's producer, Quincy Jones III, the rapper went viral with his deposition. He lost the case
11:40and had to pay Jones nearly $2.2 million. Irreparably harmed reputation. Quiet on set,
11:53the dark side of kids' TV. After years of rumors, in 2024, the documentary series Quiet on set,
11:59the dark side of kids' TV, shone a spotlight on the murky world of Nickelodeon. One of the
12:04production's main subjects was the explosive allegations against former children's TV creator
12:09Dan Schneider, who was accused of fostering a toxic work environment and misconduct against children.
12:15By the late 2000s, Dan had more control than pretty much any showrunner at Nickelodeon.
12:22In the aftermath, Schneider issued a lawsuit against the show's producers,
12:26claiming it irreparably harmed his reputation. Schneider now alleges the portrayal of him
12:31is a, quote, hit job. While he apologized for his on-set behavior, the TV writer denied the
12:37allegations he knew of or participated in any abuse of the underage stars, which he believed
12:42the series implied. In November 2024, the lawsuit was given the go-ahead by a judge to proceed.
12:49I could be cocky and definitely overambitious and sometimes just straight-up rude and obnoxious,
12:55and I am so sorry that I ever was. Outtake Outrage. Crude. Produced and directed by Joe Berlinger,
13:032009's Crude detailed the lawsuit issued by Ecuadorians residing in the Amazon rainforest
13:08against the oil and gas company, the Chevron Corporation. The total area in which Texaco polluted
13:14is about the size of the state of Rhode Island. We are suing for environmental cleanup.
13:18The residents believe the company had polluted their land. After Judge Lewis Kaplan allowed Chevron
13:23access to the outtakes following a lawsuit against the creators, it found footage of lawyer Stephen
13:29Donziger discussing unsavory tactics to beat the company in court.
13:37After the oil firm lost the original lawsuit and had to pay nearly $19 billion, in 2014,
13:44Kaplan ruled against the previous judgment by citing fraud from the Ecuadorian's U.S. lawyers,
13:50as seen in the outtakes. Kaplan also controversially ruled that Donziger had committed fraud.
13:56The lawyer was later disbarred. The reason I'm locked up is because we were successful.
14:01The double suit. Tabloid. In what is sometimes known as the Manacled Mormon case, in 1977,
14:08Joyce McKinney was accused by Mormon missionary Kirk Anderson of abducting and abusing him in
14:13England over several days. Weirdly, she became a sort of celebrity for a time.
14:18I would never do anything to hurt Kirk Anderson or slander him.
14:22In 2010, Tabloid was released, which examined the case and the newspaper's fascination with McKinney.
14:29They had painted a totally different picture of me. If I was well-educated, they made me stupid.
14:35In 2011, she issued a lawsuit against the director, Errol Morris, stating she was misled about the
14:41film's intention and that he defamed her. Morris won the case. However, McKinney wasn't done,
14:46and she issued another suit in 2016. Along with similar claims, she also accused Morris of breaking
14:52into her home and stealing, as well as threatening to harm her service dog. This case was thrown out.
14:58Serious accusation.
15:00The case of JonBenet Ramsey. In 1996, child pageant star JonBenet Ramsey was murdered in her home in
15:07Boulder, Colorado. While the case has gripped the U.S. and led to many theories, no one has been
15:12sentenced for the crime. The family has denied being involved for decades. In 2016, CBS released the
15:19docuseries The Case of JonBenet Ramsey, which examined the case and speculated who could have
15:24been responsible. It's very likely they know who did it. They may still be trying to figure out
15:29why did this happen. JonBenet's brother, Burke Ramsey, soon issued lawsuits against CVS, forensic
15:36pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz, and others for defamation, as he was accused of the crime.
15:41The lawsuit alleges the experts on the program itself knew that Burke Ramsey had been excluded as a
15:47suspect by the authorities. Altogether, he was requesting $250 million in compensatory damages
15:53and no less than $500 million in punitive damages. In 2019, the case was settled out of court.
16:00The brother of JonBenet Ramsey has reached a settlement with CBS.
16:04Investors misled.
16:05Blackfish. In 2013, the landscape of SeaWorld was changed forever upon the release of Blackfish,
16:12focusing on the captivity of Tilikum, an orca which had taken three human lives, and how orcas are
16:18treated by the company. Many people were disgusted at the allegations.
16:22I think that in 50 years, we'll look back and go, my god, what a barbaric time.
16:26In 2014, investors issued a lawsuit against SeaWorld for misleading them. They alleged that the
16:32company had lied about the negative impact the documentary had had on its revenue, as people
16:37stopped visiting the parks and had artificially inflated share prices.
16:41The year that movie came out, SeaWorld's Orlando's attendance dropped 8%.
16:45In 2020, a judge agreed to a $65 million settlement. This was on top of the $5 million
16:522018 judgment against SeaWorld and its former CEO, James Atchison, on similar federal charges.
16:59Upon news of this settlement this morning, SeaWorld's shares spiked to a 52-week high.
17:04The non-disparagement clause, Leaving Neverland. After Michael Jackson was acquitted of child
17:10molestation charges in 2005, speculation about the nature of his relationships with children
17:15tainted his reputation. He's already larger than life, and then he likes you.
17:21In 2019, the creators of Leaving Neverland wanted to examine the experience of two alleged victims.
17:28However, shortly after the film premiered at Sundance, Jackson's estate issued a lawsuit against HBO
17:33for ignoring a non-disparagement clause. The group claimed that when the broadcaster signed a deal
17:39to show one of Jackson's concerts in 1992, there was a clause stating HBO couldn't make disparaging
17:45remarks about the singer or those tied to him. The lawsuit calls the documentary a one-sided
17:50marathon of unvetted propaganda to shamelessly exploit an innocent man. As such, the estate demanded
17:58over $100 million. In 2020, after appealing, HBO was ordered to go to arbitration with Jackson's
18:04estate, but both sides agreed to dismiss in 2024. Battling the broadcaster.
18:10The uncounted enemy of Vietnam Deception. In 1982, the docu-series CBS Reports released the episode
18:17The Uncounted Enemy of Vietnam Deception. It detailed allegations that General William Westmoreland
18:23had manipulated intelligence reports that there were fewer communists in South Vietnam in 1967,
18:29which the U.S. was at war with at the time. Westmoreland was there commanding the 25,000
18:34American advisors in 1964, urging the president to commit combat troops in 1965. This figure editing
18:42would then give the impression to the states that the country's invasion was successful when it
18:47actually wasn't. As a result, Westmoreland issued a $120 million lawsuit for defamation against CBS
18:57and the episode's producers. In 1985, the trial got underway. However, believing the jury was seemingly
19:04siding with CBS, Westmoreland settled the case out of court before a verdict was reached.
19:10I made the decision. It was my responsibility. I don't regret making it.
19:15Jumping to conclusions. Diddy, the making of a bad boy. Sean Combs is currently enjoying the
19:20hospitality of the federal prison system after being convicted of transporting sex workers.
19:26In 2025, NBC, through its Peacock streaming service, released the documentary film Diddy,
19:32the making of a bad boy, which explored several allegations, including those that he was responsible
19:38for the deaths of various people, such as Kim Porter.
19:41Kim dying is one of those stop you in your tracks moments.
19:44In response, Combs filed a lawsuit against the broadcaster.
19:48The documentary maliciously accuses Mr. Combs of murdering the love of his life and mother to his
19:53children, Kimberly Porter. He claimed the documentary maliciously and baselessly jumps to the conclusion
19:59about Diddy's alleged criminal exploits. As such, he believed the film caused economic harm to him,
20:04resulting in him demanding $100 million in damages. The suit was dismissed.
20:10The documentary advances the false narrative that it cannot be a coincidence that Ms. Porter
20:15and others in Mr. Combs' orbit have died.
20:17Defamation claims. Chris Brown, a history of violence.
20:22Allegations of abuse made against high-profile figures are unfortunately destined to cause a media
20:27frenzy. And Chris Brown's legal situation is no different. Over the years, there have been various
20:32claims of Brown's violent behavior, to varying degrees of public knowledge.
20:37He said...
20:40An investigative 2024 documentary outlined these cases, to the obvious detriment to Brown's image.
20:47Obviously, somebody is looking to get a check.
20:49In response, Brown filed a defamation suit against Warner Brothers' Discovery for $500 million.
20:55His team claims that the accounts at the heart of the documentary are false, despite the numerous
21:00allegations to the contrary.
21:02Their actions undermine not only Mr. Brown's decade-long efforts to rebuild his life,
21:06but also the credibility of true survivors of violence.
21:10Do you think these lawsuits were justified? Let us know in the comments below.
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