[GadareneDemoniac]

They weren’t trying to do a “good thing” — they were trying to boost ratings.

I’m not sticking up for the pervs, but law enforcement should do their job without all the fanfare BS.

[RetSignman]

You are right, I probably should have phrased it differently. A good ‘side effect’ of boosting their ratings was catching child predators.

[untrained skeptic]

They weren’t trying to do a “good thing” — they were trying to boost ratings.

The two don't have to be mutually exclusive, and I don't see how they are in this case.

I’m not sticking up for the pervs, but law enforcement should do their job without all the fanfare BS.

So law enforcement should refuse to cooperate if a private organization chooses to do all the investigative work and collect the evidence of a crime? Are you saying that the police should just ignore the evidence that has been gathered?

Private individuals do not have to sit back and wait until the police find out that people are committing crimes and see if the police ever gather evidence to charge these people. Private individuals cannot violate the law in their attempts to gather evidence of a crime, but it doesn't appear that NBC was violating the law.