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'Predator's' victim is news ethics Re: NBC Dateline Series to Catch a Predator
Star Ledger ^ | July 26, 2007 | Paul Mulshine

Posted on 08/18/2007 6:59:27 PM PDT by Coleus

You may recall articles in this newspaper just before July 4 about New Jersey residents who were driving to Pennsylvania to bring back fireworks that are illegal in this state. Now imagine that I was looking for an idea for a column and I came up with this scheme: I would e-mail one of my readers and tell him that, just for fun, the two of us should drive over the state line to buy fireworks. I would then arrange for the police to arrest him the minute he crossed the Delaware River. And I'd have a photographer record the whole thing.

You'd probably think I was highly unethical.

Sort of like Chris Hanson.

I had never heard the name "Chris Hanson" until one evening last week. I was running on the beach in Mantoloking with my dog Betty when I came upon what looked like a movie set. As I got closer, I saw that the lights and cameras were pointed at one of those amazing heads of hair that signal a television personality. It was Hanson. An onlooker told me that he was shooting a scene from the NBC program "To Catch a Predator." A bunch of Internet sex deviates had been lured to a house there in hopes of having sex with an underage girl.

Great, I thought. Just what Ocean County needs: More perverted idiots from up north.

I didn't catch the first airing of the show, but one of my neighbors gave me a summary.

"I've never seen such a pathetic bunch of losers in my life," he said.

He was talking about the al leged molesters, but he could have been talking about the characters at NBC who thought up this show. One of the key tenets of journalistic ethics is separation between the

(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: datelinenbc; mulshine
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NBC stung by criticism of sex-predator cases
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TO CATCH A DATELINE NBC PRODUCER!

1 posted on 08/18/2007 6:59:31 PM PDT by Coleus
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To: Coleus

Why do they never go after the boy-lovers?

Or do I even need to bother asking the question?


2 posted on 08/18/2007 7:02:11 PM PDT by sinanju
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To: sinanju

The only thing that suprises me in this article is Mulshine didn’t blame this on Bush.


3 posted on 08/18/2007 7:05:04 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (When O'Reilly comes out from under his desk, tell him to give me a call. Hunter/Thompson in 08.)
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To: Coleus

NAMBLA goes on the offensive.


4 posted on 08/18/2007 7:09:53 PM PDT by ricks_place
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To: Coleus

related

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1876214/posts


5 posted on 08/18/2007 7:11:41 PM PDT by SteveMcKing
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To: Coleus

I’ve watched this....even though I cheer when the cops arrest them and hopefully they get what they deserve, it is entrapment with only the very thinnest facade of plausible deniability.


6 posted on 08/18/2007 7:13:43 PM PDT by Vn_survivor_67-68
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To: sinanju
Why do they never go after the boy-lovers?

I think they have as part of an episode, but not for a full episode.

7 posted on 08/18/2007 7:14:03 PM PDT by cryptical
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To: sinanju

do you men gay guys or older women? they have caught some gay guys, in fact there’s a marathon on msnbc right now, and a couple show up for the young male decoy. I think Hanson said once they have never caught an adult female.


8 posted on 08/18/2007 7:14:04 PM PDT by isom35
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To: Coleus

I think the problem is that MSNBC’s grandstanding botched the evidence and got 20 of them released.

MSNBC should not be grandstanding.


9 posted on 08/18/2007 7:15:26 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: SteveMcKing

thanks... see post #1


10 posted on 08/18/2007 7:17:15 PM PDT by Coleus (Pro Deo et Patria)
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To: sinanju
Why do they never go after the boy-lovers?

They do. On the episode I saw, a grossly overweight man showed up for a "date" with who he thought was a boy.

11 posted on 08/18/2007 7:17:20 PM PDT by GLDNGUN
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To: sinanju
Why do they never go after the boy-lovers?

Or do I even need to bother asking the question?

I think you answered your own question. Homosexuals can only be portrayed in a positive light.

12 posted on 08/18/2007 7:21:20 PM PDT by AlaskaErik (Run, Fred run! I will send my donation as soon as you announce.)
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To: Coleus

oops


13 posted on 08/18/2007 7:23:52 PM PDT by SteveMcKing
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To: sinanju
Why do they never go after the boy-lovers?

You have obviously not seen every episode.

14 posted on 08/18/2007 7:25:30 PM PDT by hole_n_one
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To: Coleus

Interesting take on the ethics of the show “To Catch a Predator.”

Even though it is easy to justify getting these perverts off the street, mixing news entertainment and criminal investigations can lead to so pretty undesirable outcomes.

“Running Man” keeps coming to mind.


15 posted on 08/18/2007 7:25:42 PM PDT by Fzob (In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. Jefferson)
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To: Vn_survivor_67-68
There was an interesting article posted on this subject a while back. It turns out that prosecutors have a difficult time pursuing criminal charges against most of these perpetrators -- mainly because the TV network and the "citizens' group" that organizes these sting operations refuse to cooperate with the courts.

This show is nothing more than a staged pile of sh!t, in my opinion.

16 posted on 08/18/2007 7:26:36 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (I'm out on the outskirts of nowhere . . . with ghosts on my trail, chasing me there.)
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To: sinanju

I hae seen seen several episodes of To Catch a Predator where men got caught thinking they were hooking up with a boy. And I am hardly an avid watcher. Whoever told you they never go after men looking for boys was mistaken indeed.


17 posted on 08/18/2007 7:27:09 PM PDT by A knight without armor
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To: sinanju

“Why do they never go after the boy-lovers?”

Are these heah “boy-lovers” what we used to call plain old perverts”?

Apologies to Sam Erwin.


18 posted on 08/18/2007 7:27:44 PM PDT by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is essential to examine principle)
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To: Coleus
Paul - no one FORCES kiddie perverts to go to a sting and get themselves arrested. Someone dumb enough to solicit under-age children for sex deserves what he gets. Perverted Justice is doing great work to get child predators off the streets. I see your sense of journalistic ethics don't extend to addressing the blatant liberal advocacy in the media. Go get lost!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

19 posted on 08/18/2007 7:30:17 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Alberta's Child
Some of those behind the cameras (Perverted Justice) are about as sleazy as those caught in the sting. Rolling Stone Magazine, Channel 8 News in Dallas, and Esquire Magazine have shone the light on these folks. Do a Google video for the beatnik who runs that outfit.

Do you think those crude pictures that all those guys send are not unsolicited? All these guys have the looney idea that crude pictures are the way to seduce young girls? These decoys working with Perverted Justice keep begging on the phone for these guys to come over and keep begging in phone call after phone call. In Murphy the homosexual decoy called the deceased DA three times in three hours when the latter said no. Finally, the producer of Dateline called the Murphy police chief and demanded an arrest warrant and quick. They then swarmed the guy's house. So, as in this case besides sleaze-balls entrapping other sleazeballs, the police becomes sleazed andis whored out for reposessed vehicles, financial rewards, possible bribes, etc.

20 posted on 08/18/2007 7:44:46 PM PDT by Zechariah11
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