is To Catch a Predator entrapment or invasion of privacy rights?
If you see Chris Hansen, it's trouble
from yahoo
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer Sun Apr 1, 7:53 PM ET
NEW YORK - Chris Hansen of NBC News has supplanted Mike Wallace as the TV journalist you'd least like to see emerge from behind a closed door.
For dozens of men cornered on the "Dateline NBC" series "To Catch a Predator," the sight of Hansen dashes their warped dreams of sex with a child they'd "met" over the Internet. They'd be arrested and shamed on national television.
Some of the same subterfuge — minus the shame — was applied in Hansen's effort to trace online identity thieves. His second of two prime-time hours on the topic airs 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday on NBC.
"To Catch a Predator" has established Hansen's professional identity. Through 10 installments over 2 1/2 years, the series is such a part of the culture that online parodies abound. His teenage sons love the one that shows a man with a microphone trailing kids around the house saying, "I'm Chris Hansen." "Dad, I know," is the exasperated reply.
It's impact journalism. Hansen has shed light on a 21st century crime and, either through the arrests of potential sex fiends or deterrence, probably saved some youths from being victims. Aside from the occasional high-profile interview, nothing else broadcast news divisions have done over the past few years gets such consistently high ratings.
Yet "To Catch a Predator" is also an ethical minefield.
NBC News and the group it pays to chat online with potential predators, Perverted Justice, have been accused of entrapment. Critics say the series promotes humiliation as entertainment, much like the cringe-worthy auditions that begin each season of "American Idol." When Texas prosecutor Louis "Bill" Conradt Jr. put a bullet through his head after his house was surrounded by police and TV cameras interested in his online sex talk last November, his sister blamed NBC.
Among several ethical concerns is that NBC has become actively involved in the story instead of covering it, said Bob Steele of the Poynter Institute in Florida.
"I fear that `Dateline's' motivation is driven by the quest for eyeballs, for ratings, rather than a legitimate journalistic purpose when they perpetually run what in essence is the same story over and over," he said.
Hansen, a 14-year NBC News veteran, came up with the idea for "To Catch a Predator" after hearing about Perverted Justice. He's proud of the way it has brought attention to a little-known crime.
"We debate all of this internally — how much is too much, what is our role, how do we balance compelling television with journalism," he said. "Everyone's entitled to their point of view. That kind of debate is healthy. It doesn't make me defensive. I get asked these questions all the time and I feel comfortable answering them."
The reality of television is that if Hansen pitched a story about online sex predators and all he had were a few interviews and pictures of fingers typing on a keyboard, his producers would probably pass, he said.
So the formula was created that persists today.
With typers who will pose as innocent youths, Perverted Justice lies in wait for predators who visit chat rooms. When they engage in conversation and suggest a meeting, the decoys set one up at a home NBC has rented and rigged with cameras.
The men arrive, often invited inside by a young actress. Then Hansen appears, holding transcripts of the online conversations. Some men offer pathetic, mumbling excuses about their intentions. Others make a futile dash, unaware the house is surrounded by police.
Hansen has seen the comically inept — two men walked into a room naked — and the vaguely dangerous, when a rabbi lunged to grab obscene pictures of himself he had sent online. The most heartbreaking case involved a Florida man who arrived with his 5-year-old son.
Men are so driven by delusion they figure they won't be caught. Maybe some secretly want to be, he said.
Because the decoys wait for a potential predator to make the first move, Hansen said he doesn't consider this entrapment. Yes, the subject matter can get dicey, but he said he's never been uncomfortable watching the programs with his 15-year-old son.
The Conradt case was the most serious issue NBC has faced. Conradt's sister, Patricia, told the Murphy, Texas, City Council that she didn't consider her brother's death a suicide. "When these people came after him for a news show, it ended his life," she said.
There's no evidence the prosecutor knew that "Dateline NBC" was involved, Hansen said. NBC hasn't shied away from the case, showing the cavalcade of police cars heading toward Conradt's house and the sad aftermath in a program that aired during the February ratings "sweeps." Its inclusion was even promoted in advance.
"If it had happened to my brother, I'd be sad that he had decided to commit suicide," Hansen said. "But to say it's our fault, I just don't think that's true."
He's not sure how many more "To Catch a Predator" stings will happen. The series' success gives Hansen — who has investigated child labor in India and the child sex trade in Cambodia — freedom and the juice within NBC News to pursue many different stories.
One was the identity theft piece, a close cousin to "Predator." Hansen sets up fake credit card accounts, an online electronics store and a delivery company to infiltrate a shady world of stolen goods. Part two finds him closer to masterminds operating overseas.
In one unexpectedly funny segment, Hansen is caught by hidden cameras talking with a man who collects stolen electronic equipment for a fantasy woman who is an online apparition. He jokes with Hansen about the hapless men he's seen on "To Catch a Predator."
He has no idea who he's talking to. The joke's on him.
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On the Net:
http://www.msnbc.com
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EDITOR'S NOTE — David Bauder can be reached at dbauder"at"ap.org
Re: is To Catch a Predator entrapment or invasion of privacy rights?
Re: is To Catch a Predator entrapment or invasion of privacy rights?
A lynch mob isn't entrapment, but that doesn't make it right. Although I have seen little evidence of it, I still believe we are meant to try a person before sentencing them.
Re: is To Catch a Predator entrapment or invasion of privacy rights?
If you violate someone (or have intention to), we have all the right in the world to violate every goddamn right you claim to have.
Re: is To Catch a Predator entrapment or invasion of privacy rights?
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheQuietPlace
If you violate someone (or have intention to), we have all the right in the world to violate every goddamn right you claim to have.
Please forgive me, but I can't tell if you are serious or being sarcastic.
Re: is To Catch a Predator entrapment or invasion of privacy rights?
I like that show... highly entertaining. As for ethics... I'm keeping out of it. All I know is that if someone is stupid enough to set up a sex meeting, online, with a little kid ... they need some kind of intervention.
Re: is To Catch a Predator entrapment or invasion of privacy rights?
I'm pretty much all for a law enforcement approach, but I feel like it's a fundamental betrayal of the ideals of our justice system when crime is entertainment before it comes to trial. I'm also stone cold certain that I could talk someone into committing a crime without exactly crossing the line of entrapment, so I imagine that someone who does it for a living is quite capable as well, and I'm not really certain that's appropriate.
There are sexual massage parlors in pretty much any of the locations they film TCaP and I think busting a walk in client after making it clear that the masseuse is underage, if the client tries to purchase sexual favors, would be much more appropriate for coverage. That way the criminal would have really done the act of their own volition.
But, chatting someone up and getting them to do something that they may have never done if you hadn't talked them into it, well, I do think that crosses a line, even if what they were doing was totally despicable.
Re: is To Catch a Predator entrapment or invasion of privacy rights?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ForrestBlack
Please forgive me, but I can't tell if you are serious or being sarcastic.
That was in all seriousness.
Re: is To Catch a Predator entrapment or invasion of privacy rights?
yeah, I just don't think it's right for law enforcement officers to basically pressure people into saying that they are going to break the law, and then arresting them for it. I mean how does that make sense? If i convinced someone else to break the law, but didn't do it myself I'd still get arrested for anything from being an accesory to conspiracy. soliciting a minor for sex is a crime, but pimping out a kid to get an old guy to have sex with isn't? that's like the difference between possession and selling. also i can't get behind the idea of prosecuting intellectual crimes, that is the intention to commit a crime wihtout actually commiting any crime. all is said and done they were talking to an adult that asked them to have sex, they weren't coercing and then haxing sex with a kid. should someone go to jail for attempted murder when you threaten someone?
Re: is To Catch a Predator entrapment or invasion of privacy rights?
It's not entrapment. ALL of those fuckers are the ones instigating sexual conversations with minors. I don't see ANY entrapment, they broke the law* (they made their beds and can lay in them as far I'm concerned). I'm happy when those cunts get arrested. Just because they are paraded on national tv just makes it funny.
*I'm all for lawlessness by the way
