To Catch To Catch a Predator
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NYTV
“They fought back hard,” said Brian Ross.
It was Friday afternoon, and Mr. Ross, the chief investigative correspondent for ABC News, was on the phone with The Observer. He was discussing NBC’s preemptive response to his latest story—set to air that night on ABC’s 20/20—which would raise troubling questions about Dateline NBC’s hit show, To Catch a Predator.
The buzzy Predator, in which Dateline investigators, working with law enforcement officials, conduct sting operations designed to expose and arrest potential child molesters, has turned into a surprise hit among NBC’s struggling prime-time lineup. Now Ross was readying an investigative report that aimed to shine a spotlight on Dateline’s sometimes questionable methods.
For weeks, said Mr. Ross, NBC producers and executives had declined to comment for his piece. Then, last Wednesday, NBC News president Steve Capus had publicly questioned Mr. Ross’ motives in an interview with USA Today. “I chalk this up to the usual network silly competitiveness, in a territory that deserves much more of a serious handling,” Mr. Capus told the paper. “The competitive wars right now are at a very high level. That’s fueling this.”
To NYTV, Mr. Ross batted down Capus’s implication. “Implicit in that was that we’re all in a club and we shouldn’t criticize or report on each other,” said Mr. Ross. “I don’t think that’s the way you should operate. It’s like the blue wall of silence with cops.”
Mr. Ross had never watched an episode of To Catch a Predator until this summer. But he grew interested in the story when a group of fellow reporters alerted him to the tragedy surrounding a sting operation that the show, coordinating with local police, had carried out in Murphy, Texas, outside of Dallas. During filming, one of the operation’s targets had committed suicide rather than face exposure on national television. To make matters worse, the local prosecutor eventually dropped all charges against all 23 would-be pedophiles caught on camera, citing flaws in the joint NBC/police investigation.
Mr. Ross was intrigued. “People said, ‘You’ll never go after NBC.’ I said, ‘Well, we’re not going to go after NBC. But we are going to take a look at this.’”
The show, which aired Friday night, used outtake footage, never aired by NBC, to detail the intimate working relationship that Dateline forged with the local police chief’s office, and the extent to which the show’s production requirements influenced police procedures—ultimately leading to the collapse of the D.A.’s case.
Mr. Ross said he was surprised by NBC’s defensiveness, contrasting the experience with his critical reporting on CBS, during the Dan Rather “Memogate” controversy of 2004.
“I remember talking to [CBS president] Les Moonves and he said, ‘You really opened our eyes,’” said Mr. Ross. “I thought that was commendable. CBS was straightforward. They answered our questions. They dealt with us. That was not the reaction we got at NBC from Capus.”
MEMO TO CNBC EMPLOYEES THINKING about jumping ship to the Fox Business Network, set to kick off October 15: Get your Kevins straight!
That advice comes a little too late for Eric Bolling. In June, Mr. Bolling, a high-rolling commodities trader-turned-charismatic CNBC talking head, informed his cable news bosses that he was quitting as a commentator on the market-analysis show Fast Money. Next Page >
You assume facts not in evidence. There is no evidence that DA Conradt knew he was going to be filmed or that Dateline was involved in this sting unless he received a tip from the Murphy DA, the police in his town, or the police in Murphy. He did know, of course, that his computer contained evidence of another crime, possession of child pornography and that is probably why he chose to commit suicide. Getting all the facts straight before you publish might be a good idea, if what you are trying to do is present the facts and not just jump on the bash Dateline bandwagon. Professional jealousy is so unbecoming in the news media.
I challenge any objective, intelligent person to look at a photograph of the person running the organization that runs the show at NBC, one Xavier Von Erck, and tell me they are certain that he is not a pedophille himself. He is at best, a deeply disturbed and troubled young man, and it appears his actions are soon to topple the entire NBC news organization.
Clearly this is a show featuring fake journalists working with fake cops in the pursuit of fake crimes. Kudos to ABC for bringing this farce to light.
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"Clearly this is a show featuring fake journalists working with fake cops in the pursuit of fake crimes. Kudos to ABC for bringing this farce to light."
REALLY?
That's why the guy committed suicide because it was all fake?
This is clearly a hit piece on Dateline and it falls under the same category of a person who slaughters a family of five but needs to be let go because he wasn't read his Miranda rights. I'll never understand people who stand by that kind of logic.
I guess people like Jon Peters and Brian Ross are going to have to 'investigate' for themselves before the news starts helping to protect the children. What a joke...
Oh and how are your daughters (or sons for that matter) privacy settings on MySpace?? Let me know ... we can pass them along to 'fake' pedophiles (You should be ok with that).
I very much agree with HeWhoWatches. If it's fake then why don't you offer your kids up then? That's how this country is now and it's so sad. Everyone cares so much for these 'poor people' who are hurting children but they don't care about the kids themselves. Everyone on here who criticizes the show is basically a pedofile to me. You probably don't do shit to help anyone who has suffered at the hands of men like these, but you'll sit on your computers and talk your filth and try to help the men who intentionally hurt people? It's beyond me.
I'm glad that jerk committed suicide. Another Pedophile bites the dust!
Don't people have to give their permission to be put on television? If they do, why would anyone in their right mind give permission to be shown on this show? How come COPS episodes have to blur peoples faces out but they don't have to on this show? Are the supposed pedophiles actors? If they were real people busted in the act wouldn't they embrace their right to privacy? This show seems inconceivable to me, but maybe they are real pedophiles who get paid so much to be put on T.V. while caught in the act that they take the money since they are in trouble anyway.
lulz jealousy.