To Catch a Predator
An Immoral Disgrace to Law and Journalism
Travis Anderson
Issue date: 1/24/10 Section: News and Opinion
Have you seen that movie where the protagonist stares long and hard at the entrance of a convenience store, enters and skulks in the aisles as he is weighed down by the 9mm in his pocket? He plans to rob the cashier at gun point but he can't bear to hurt a person despite how desperate his situation is, so he buys a bag of chips and walks out.
Now, imagine instead, while he is staring at the entrance, police tackle him to the ground, arrest him on grounds of attempted robbery, because he is in possession of a firearm, and bring him to Chris Hansen. Chris Hansen then interrogates, "we know you were going to rob that store, we have conversations between you and your mirror. You said, 'I am going to go in there and get the money,' you are guilty." This prejudication is not too drastic to compare to the immoral practices of NBC News's entertainment piece, To Catch a Predator, which features the unethical combination of state and media power, the presence of entrapment, and severe repercussions and humiliations all for the sake of entertainment.
TCAP prepares sting operations to catch internet predators that it's ally, "non-profit" organization Perverted Justice, baits by having its volunteers lurk in chat rooms pretending to be children. These discovered respondents are led to a house with a supposed minor, who is an actor or actress that greets the respondent and goes away to get lemonade, only because if the child did not leave the room, there would not be enough space in the room for Chris Hansen's almighty presence. Chris Hansen uses his Aryan features to intimidate the respondents in addition to his holier-than-thou attitude and patronizing tone of voice.
Sure, the respondents are supposed to be child predators, but it does not make any of these Dateline methods ethical or moral.
But it gets better, the respondents that NBC News, a supposed media outlet, further takes the law into their own hands by bringing police to the scene of the interview, hands the respondents over to the police and all transcripts that Perverted Justice had collected to get the respondents to the scene of the future crime. NBC News lost even more of its credibility when they began to give Perverted Justice a $100,000 consultant fee, crossing into paying-for-news-sources territory.
Now, imagine instead, while he is staring at the entrance, police tackle him to the ground, arrest him on grounds of attempted robbery, because he is in possession of a firearm, and bring him to Chris Hansen. Chris Hansen then interrogates, "we know you were going to rob that store, we have conversations between you and your mirror. You said, 'I am going to go in there and get the money,' you are guilty." This prejudication is not too drastic to compare to the immoral practices of NBC News's entertainment piece, To Catch a Predator, which features the unethical combination of state and media power, the presence of entrapment, and severe repercussions and humiliations all for the sake of entertainment.
TCAP prepares sting operations to catch internet predators that it's ally, "non-profit" organization Perverted Justice, baits by having its volunteers lurk in chat rooms pretending to be children. These discovered respondents are led to a house with a supposed minor, who is an actor or actress that greets the respondent and goes away to get lemonade, only because if the child did not leave the room, there would not be enough space in the room for Chris Hansen's almighty presence. Chris Hansen uses his Aryan features to intimidate the respondents in addition to his holier-than-thou attitude and patronizing tone of voice.
Sure, the respondents are supposed to be child predators, but it does not make any of these Dateline methods ethical or moral.
But it gets better, the respondents that NBC News, a supposed media outlet, further takes the law into their own hands by bringing police to the scene of the interview, hands the respondents over to the police and all transcripts that Perverted Justice had collected to get the respondents to the scene of the future crime. NBC News lost even more of its credibility when they began to give Perverted Justice a $100,000 consultant fee, crossing into paying-for-news-sources territory.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 6
Martha
posted 1/24/10 @ 9:43 PM AST
Why are you misleading readers by stating that this is entrapment - when out of the hundreds of guys arrested in these stings, not ONE TIME have the courts ever ruled entrapment in any of the cases? Lots of these guys try to claim entrapment as a defense and the court has ruled AGAINST them every time - even all the way up to the Supreme Court in some cases. (Continued…)
cantyoujustfirethem
posted 1/26/10 @ 9:30 AM AST
Hey, NBC, why go to all of that time and expense. Just hang around the halls of Clemson for a day. There's some well known predators that will be easy to catch. (Continued…)
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