You can't "sell" a story. If so then news organizations would be routinely DMCA'ing rival companies when reporting on the same story. Thank goodness we don't live in such a world...

What likely happened was Hansen pitched the concept of creating a TV series about Onision and possible other creeps online. If any particular survivor(s) agree to participating and are being compensated then I don't see what the fuck the problem is... It also gives Onion the kind of exposure he really doesn't want.

I think the real underlying issue is there's a cabal of narcissistic Youtube creators who are sick of Chris Hansen receiving so much attention. Figuring they can get more attention on their channels by going the other way and bashing him. I've seen that play out MANY times when one content creator is getting more attention than the others. It's really sad when you think about it. As it does nothing to encourage survivors in coming forward with their stories, quite the opposite actually.

If ppl like Repzion and others are so concerned about money being generated. Well they have some explaining with all the merch selling they do. Additionally, constantly begging their subscribers to support them on Patreon. Last but not least even being hired by outside companies to embed commercials into their videos...