Anyone here find these DATELINE "To Catch a Predator" shows exploitive?

[derby378]

Here's my take. Yes, you've got these guys on-line chatting with who they think are adolescent or young teenage girls. They show up at a rendezvous point and are greeted by a real live girl who lures them into the kitchen where Chris Hansen of Dateline is waiting to read their chat logs back to them and humiliate them before all of America - and that's before the cops swarm on the accused in the front yard.

I dunno. If someone is actually trying to rape or molest a child, sure, throw them behind bars. But this is also the nation where Jerry Lee Lewis legally married a 13-year-old girl. And in this nation, our children are under increasing pressure to grow up too fast, to dress older than they really are. Abercrombie & Fitch, IIRC, even debated the idea of marketing thong panties to adolescent girls. Like they don't have nearly enough to be self-conscious about to begin with.

Our nation is in sad shape. But putting all the blame on the would-be molesters isn't good enough. What we need is a culture that stops trying to redefine our little girls as Lolitas in training, just begging for an adult male to educate them in matters sexual. Where to start, I don't know. But if we can't figure it out, then Dateline will continue its descent into sheap tabloid pablum where those who are - in the eyes of the law - "innocent until proven guilty in a court of law" are humiliated in front of the unblinking eye for our entertainment.

[spindrifter]

1. The really disturbing thing is that the

statements these blokes are making on camera are all admissible in court. Bye, bye Miranda. Don't need you.
Yes, I find this stuff totally exploitative. Dateline is exploiting everyone with this stuff. Time to move on to something else. Is the network donating money to couneling centers for young kids that are abused? Are they donating to ATSA or some other group that fosters treatment for sex offenders? Are they putting on ads to inform kids and parents that they need to think seriously before they get hooked up with some person they meet on a chatline unless it is in the presence of other people?

[bperci108]

2. It's titillating info-tainment at it's finest...

...just the thing to distract the masses.

I'd expect no less from the Corporate Media.

One of many reasons I don't watch the TeeVee thingy.


:puke:

[Orrex]

3. Hell yes, it's exploitive

:rant:

It's sickening voyeurism at its most crude, masquerading as a noble mission to bring these monsters to justice. And it's hypocritical besides.

Last week I posted about the program that aired directly following "To Catch a Predator." Rather than being set in a sting-house, it was a cozy one-on-one interview with a young woman in (over)glamorous makeup, softly lit in what appeared to be a living room or warmly appointed studio set. The woman, who was cast as a victim of her difficult lifestyle, was none other than Debra LaFave, who admitted having sex with one of her 14 year-old male students. Instead of being lured, trapped, and humiliated on national television, she was given a sweetheart interview in which she got to plead her case as though she's just been misunderstood.

NBC's sickening hypocrisy in these two consecutive programs can't be overstated. The moral is that, if you're a young, camera-friendly blond woman, you can screw children with relative impunity, but if you're a man trying to do the same thing, watch out!

LaFave is as much a criminal as the men who are weekly trotted out for the cameras. A little even-handedness would go a long way toward mitigating NBC's hypocrisy, but I'm not holding my breath.

Bottom line is yes, it's exploitive.

[ForFuxakes]

4. I'm kinda torn on this one...

I have kids and the thought of a predator really burns me up...but this almost seems like entrapment. Yea, Yea i know...they know the age but I'm just sayin'...

Flame away!

:grr:

[Goblinmonger]

6. "seems like" and "is"

are miles and miles apart. This is clearly not entrapment. Not even when it is the police doing it instead of NBC.

[derby378]

10. Actually, isn't it PervertedJustice.com?

It's run by FreeRepublic sympathizers who started running these stings freelance before cops persuaded them to cooperate with law enforcement.

[Goblinmonger]

12. Even a broken clock

is right two times a day.

[Booster]

8. I find these shows close to entrapment myself - the only good

thing is I hope parents are watching these shows and start to ask their kids what they are doing on the internet - or better yet, track what their kids are doing. They have all kinds of software for tracking. I think the parents are just a little to blame for some of this cause my nephew tracks his daughter (at least she thinks he's tracking her). She's a good kid anyway, but you know what I'm saying.

[Armstead]

5. It's the movie Network come to life

If you remember the horrible shows that UBS News put on in that movie, they have chilling resemblance to "To Catch a Predator."


NBC has fallen into the gutter.

Not very many yeazrs ago, shows like Hard Copy and A Current Affair were sniffed at by the mainstream media as tabloid trash,

The kind of crap that NBC and the other "news" networks are doing now makes Hard Copy look like Edward R. Murrow.

[mitchum]

7. It's THE classic formula for exploitation...

decry the "shocking outrage" while providing cheap titillation
Television is just an electronic road show with overpaid barkers.

[Malikshah]

9. Prurient...

Titillating...yup-- lowest common denominators.

Jerry Spring with polish.

[rocktivity]

11. I believe they've BECOME exploitative--of the viewers.

Televising the stings started out as being important, informative and definitely newsworthy--THAT'S why the shows were a success. But like Kiss farewell tours and Star Wars sequels, they've been repeated so often they've lost their true meaning. Now they've dissolved into infotainment--just a television executive's wet dream away from becoming the basis of the next reality show.

:headbang:
rocknation

[mitchum]

15. Television is ALWAYS exploitative of the viewers because...

networks (and stations) don't sell advertising to you. Rather, what they actually do is sell YOU the viewer to advertisers. That's why Nielson and other ratings are so important to them. They reflect how many potential consumers can be exploited during a certain offering.

Just because that thing sits in your house that does not mean it is your friend

[JI7]

13. wouldn't they more effective in catching these people if it wasn't on TV

it makes me think some sexual offenders will come up with ideas to get around this and make it even more dangerous.

sexual molestors and the issue of girls being forced to grow up are not that much related. wouldn't the molestors be around even if girls didn't try to act older than they are ?

[newsguyatl]

14. it bothered me, yes

in more ways than one.