NYT on Predator Baiting
mannybolone
Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
What, no Cam'ron quote?http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/17/arts/television/17stan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=printThe TV WatchGotcha! 'Dateline' Paves a Walk of Shame for Online PredatorsBy ALESSANDRA STANLEYIn 70's movies like "Death Wish," Charles Bronson hunted down criminals and deviants with a gun. NBC's "Dateline" uses the Internet and chocolate-chip cookies. Both methods offer the instant gratification of vigilante justice, but now the fictional version has been revamped as reality television: "Punk'd" for perverts."Dateline" works with a civilian watchdog group and local law enforcement to unmask would-be pedophiles using Internet sting operations. An adult poses as a teenage boy or girl online and invites a predator for a tryst. The suspect finds himself in a cozy suburban kitchen filled with snacks, only to discover the "Dateline" correspondent Chris Hansen and hidden cameras lying in wait. Since the first installment of "To Catch a Predator" on "Dateline" in 2004, all kinds of men have fallen into the trap, including a rabbi from Potomac, Md., who thought he was going to have sex with a teenage boy. Many suspects are passive and astonishingly candid when confronted: a testimony, perhaps, to the hypnotic powers of a television camera.These raw, unscripted spectacles of men caught sweaty-handed were such a hit that "Dateline" has made "Predator" a recurring feature, usually timed to a sweeps week. The current one, set in Florida, concludes tonight at 9 Eastern and Pacific times with yet another group of would-be gropers who are offered a cookie, surprised and dressed down by Mr. Hansen, and then tackled to the sidewalk and handcuffed by police.Television entrapment isn't new: the "Dateline" segments echo Mike Wallace's hidden-camera ambushes on "60 Minutes" in the 70's. Those fell from favor after the decade passed, but NBC's sting operations have found new traction in a era of Minutemen groups rounding up illegal immigrants along the Mexican border and self-styled anticrime crusaders who have their own watchdog television programs, from John Walsh's "America's Most Wanted" to the prosecutorial scoldings of the three cable-news crime divas: Nancy Grace, Rita Cosby and Greta Van Susteren.Violent crime is down since the 1970's, but the public's fear of more insidious, high-tech perils stokes the ratings of vigilante television.The "Predator" segments are as seedy and fascinatingly repellant as the suspected predators they showcase. The suspects are seemingly ordinary men, many married with children, many middle-aged and portly. A few, like a mild-looking man in his late 40's whose screen name is, aptly, "GenericWhiteMale," send their Internet prey pictures of their genitals ??? and sagging, hairy bellies ??? demonstrating, at the very least, a delusional level of self-confidence.On last week's episode GenericWhiteMale sauntered into the house wearing glasses, a yellow tank top and shorts. When the decoy, an actress posing as the 15-year-old girl, invited him to have a cookie while she got ready, he sat down, helping himself with the expectant complacency of a blood donor waiting for his well-earned reward.He seemed only mildly surprised when Mr. Hansen walked into the kitchen instead of his teenage date. "Is this some kind of setup or something?" he asked.An equally generic middle-aged man whose Internet pseudonym is "Donni1957" seemed almost resigned when confronted by Mr. Hansen; he had seen "Predator" episodes before. "I know this is probably going to be on 'Dateline,' too," he says mournfully. "So go ahead, put it on." He admitted he would probably have had sex with the underage girl if she had been willing. "Yes, I do see things wrong with it," he conceded. "But I have a lack of judgment." He said it as if that were a medical condition, like diabetes, which, it turned out, he did have. Later, in jail, he was treated for diabetic shock. (Cookies were another bad idea.)NBC ran into a little trouble over a series taped in Ohio last April when it was revealed that "Dateline" had paid the group Perverted Justice $100,000 for assistance in that operation. "Dateline" was accused of checkbook journalism, which technically would be correct if the cheesy magazine program actually rose to the level of journalism. At best, it's a tabloid-entertainment show with a muckraking streak. NBC easily shrugged off the ethical questions, and went on to set new traps in Florida.Those who raise questions about entrapment, on the other hand, have a point. It is hard to tell from the program whether the suspects are active predators intent on luring children into offline sexual encounters or kinky fantasists tempted by "Dateline" into crossing a line. (Their Web names alone tend to sound incriminating, however. One calls himself "Importuner81.") "Dateline" tries to back up its allegations. One man kept yelling, "We were in a role-playing chat room, dude," his way of saying that he had reason to believe that his online correspondent was pretending to be a teenager for kicks. Mr. Hansen somberly informs viewers that, in fact, it was a romance site.However sensationalist and unsavory, "Predator" is hard to fault; its targets deserve worse than a "Dateline" walk of shame. But the program's success seems to be inspiring others to try their own brand of ambush journalism. The "Today" show recently recruited a private investigator to put a hidden camera in a BMW and test the honesty of valet-parking attendants in Los Angeles. "To Catch a Glove-Compartment Pilferer" doesn't have quite the same pizazz.
Comments
Why don't the men have a choice to have their segment shown on TV like COPS? Or do they? I can't believe they would choose to do so, even if it was part of some plea bargain- this is a truly life-ruining event for anyone seen on it.
all i know is that i love watching those fuckers get tackled onto the concrete.
i guess dateline is just willing to risk lawsuits. they do have billions of dollars behind them for defense.
how much could this show have an effect after the fact? will would-be predators lay low for fear of being on tv? and for how long?
the success of this series will certainly offset those suits.
If Ann Curry is lurking...call me Ann, (202)265-8945
That's a good question. Does COPS even offer an option? I'm just speculating here, but does committing an illegal act have anything to do with having a choice to appear on TV or not? Is it possible that you right is waived at that point. I'm sure this was thought through during the planning process.
I remember during one of the specials featured one guy who freaked out when Hansen told him he worked for Dateline and realized it would be on TV, getting up from the bar stool and running to cover the camera lense with his hand in a fit of nervous embarassment. I can't imagine he changed his mind, deciding it was OK to show him in the episode.
...me too, and the one time I watched it and was
asking my roommate (who watches faithfully) these questions,
she said something that counters what it said in the article -
she claimed that the cameras are hidden, and the suspects
don't know they are being filmed ... it reasons that most
of them act so cooperatively because they think they are just
going to be lectured and set free, only to have the cops tackle
them outside the door, and their "interview" shown on TV.
What was up with the guy that brought his son with him??
Did ya'll see the one guy who looked like Steve Nash on crank?? The dude got caught, the let him go and he was back in the same chat room THE NEXT DAY. Not only that, but he arranged to meet THE SAME KID IN A MCDONALD'S PARKING LOT!!!
Hansen got out of the truck and walked over to him straight up and said, "I have been in journalism for 25 years and I have NEVER seen anything like this! Totally disgusted!!! It was beautiful.
The "same kid"?? There's never any kid to begin with, right?
That guy must've been insanely dense
Same screen name, or maybe it was a different one, but it was the same person posing as a child in the chatroom. "Dense" would be giving him and his mental state credit. There has got to be a stronger adjective.
The thing with COPS though is that these people are being arrested but technically, they have yet to be convicted so they're not really guilty of anything, at least, not at the time when the video is shot.
i didn't even think of that. but could i videotape anyone i want to in my house and put it on tv? i didn't think that was legal either.
But having this kind of sexual communication with underage children is illegal off the bat, though, no?
FanyonesI - The first special I saw did not include footage of police tackling/cuffing the guys as they left the house. One of them is even shown running down the highway to the bustop he arrived at.
dateline be swagger jackin
"From Nancy, Davenport, Iowa: How is that you are allowed to show the faces of the predators without their permission? I thought releases had to be signed. By the way, what you are doing is wonderful.
Chris Hansen: It would be more customary to obtain release, but Dateline is a news program not an entertainment program. It really depends on the circumstances. In some sensitive situations involving minors, for example, we have the parents sign release"
I would think they would still need something. I guess not...
Yeah, but there hasn't been a conviction yet. You've still got to prove it in court, although in this case there is pretty incontrovertible evidence that would make it very easy to do so.
Actually, maybe they sit on the footage until there's been a conviction?
maybe. the 4th amendment is all about expectation of privacy.
do you have a reasonable expectation of privacy (i.e, that you will not be filmed) when you walk into a stranger's house? i don't know.
the supreme court has already held that you do not have an expecation of privacy in your own back yard. so the police may take pictures of you from a helicopter and photographers can film you as they sit perched up on a tree (assuming its not your tree).
the people on Cops can be filmed if they are walking in the street or outside of their property. however, if the cops come into their house (and its not a bust), i would assume that they have to get permission. on the other hand, if the cops come charging into their house (because they have a warrant or becuase its exigent circumstances) than i do not think the homeowner has an expectation of privacy.
i guess the fact that they have freedom of press is the point. the news doesn't have to censor out anything at all. so, sense they are just reporting "the news", they can show anything they want under the protection of freedom of press. makes sense i guess.
Well, that analysis applies when you've got a government actor--like police--but the Dateline question appears to be more one of tort law. Although perhaps Dateline's cooperation with the government renders them an extension of it.
True, but both shows (cops and dateline) are acting with govt cooperation. Also, there are civil laws in most states relating to invasion of privacy. These laws follow the same theory regarding the reasonableness of a person's expectation of privacy. For example, it is obviously a crime to put cameras in a dressing room. Cameras in a stranger's house? not so sure.
That my actually be the case... In the last episode I caught, they showed footage of the guys in court. Some of them even pleaded no contest.
Cheaters.
this show always seemed so fake to me.
Even when the host got stabbed???
Rillz and Van Horn, P.C.
1-800-ASS-HURT
Helping the little dudes for 15 years.
What? You know deep down he was thinking. "This will be the best episode ever. So long cheaters, hello inside edition."
I missed that one...I only seen it once or twice..It cracked me up..It was on late night...I'm easily amused at that time of night.