NBC's To Catch a Predator. Journalism or a Television Show

Eighteen months ago, NBC News and Reporter Chris Hansen aired a remarkable work about on-line predators roaming the internet looking for children. The story, showed NBC, with the aid of a group called Perverted Justice, running internet stings on individuals trying to find children through various chat rooms. During the program Hansen would come into the kitchen of the home where the predator expected to find a youngster home alone and interviewed these depraved individuals.

The show, which brought to light for all of us just how prevalent internet predators are in this country, was an exceptional piece of journalism. In almost all states, the crime of solicitation of a minor is constituted at the point the chat logs are written. In order to bring the story home to viewers however, NBC chose to have the suspected pedophiles come to a house so that they could be caught on camera and thus give us a better idea of who these people are. The fact that they were men of all ages and professions including some in high profile careers brought home the point that we need to watch what our children are doing on chat-logs because it is impossible to tell who is lurking on the web. The show, justifiably, was a ratings hit and in fact is still being rerun on the secondary NBC stations to this day.

The problem is that NBC News decided to turn this type of programming into a regular show having run this sordid look at a problem we have in this country with an additional ten similar shows in different cities across the country. They even have aired a Best of To Catch a Predator and now we need to ask if they have gone too far. They have changed this issue from a journalist program into a ratings bonanza and that is where the questions are starting to be raised. Is this journalism or is this a ratings show depending on the sickest among us to be caught as possible child molesters and what does it say of us who continually watch

The To Catch a Predator show’s host Chris Hansen admits they are pressing the limitations of what is news and what is making the news when he stated the show pushes the boundaries of traditional journalism. That is putting it mildly. The show is now about how many of us will watch the same thing over and over again with the only difference being a batch of new sick and troubled individuals being found out by internet vigilantes.

The concept of having authorities use such tactics is certainly a sound idea. The question is who should be running these stings, the local police or a television network.

Not to be outdone and seeing a chance at boosting their own ratings, ABC’s news show 20/20 recently ran a scathing expose of the NBC show. In the program ABC advised us that the Perverted Justice organization far from just being an altruistic group has been paid $100,000 per episode for reeling in these sick individuals. ABC was also quick to point out that the last segment filmed in Collin County Texas ended with the district attorney not prosecuting any of the individuals nabbed in the act. The district attorney believed since police didn’t handle the entrapment there was no direct way to prove that some of these individuals were not led into the situation. In effect, the DA stated police must handle such work in order to be able to prove intent without coercion which cannot be proven when a television network and paid employees of that network are running the sting rather than the police department.

A strong point on the ABC show was made by New York City police officials who advised us that they frequently run internet stings using on-duty police to entrap the depraved individuals in their district. They also believe this important work is police business and is not a television show.

Remarkably, Chris Hansen who has made himself a star by walking into a kitchen and confronting people who just as easily could have been arrested off camera, refused to go on the competitor’s program to refute their claims that he and NBC have gone too far with this programming. Hansen doesn’t mind getting in people’s faces and asking them what were they thinking but he doesn’t seem to want the same question asked of him.

In a strange way ABC has perhaps done us a service by finally questioning if such tactics and the premise of NBC serializing this sordid part of our culture has gone too far. The question now is, was ABC right to chastise their competitor or have they simply jumped on board this issue to garner their own ratings.

I will leave that question for all of you to decide.