TVSquad

The guy who killed himself is a sicko and was the DA or something of that area. Good he's dead. The show makes the sickos think twice about what they are doing.

Maybe you don't like it because you support what these guys do.

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I understand what you're saying, but I really think you're off-base on this. What their exploiting happens all the time whether or not they exploit it. Hopefully law enforcement agencies across the country are duplicating the tactics off camera. I'm sorry a man killed himself, but the humiliation of getting caught likely would have driven him to that point whether or not it was televised. The DA in that case sounds like he was more concerned with political considerations than justice. Those 24 deviants are loose now.

I guess in the end I just feel that there are plenty of low forms of entertainment with no redeeming value. At least this spectacle puts very bad men in jail.

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These ARE the very methods being used by law enforcement. Officers pose as children in chat rooms all the time. They arrange meetings and arrest the predators. This is just televised.

I don't particularly like the show - but I have absolutely no problem with it.

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HOWEVER THEY CATCH THESE MONSTERS IS OK WITH ME!! AFTER CAUGHT AND TRIED AND FOUND GUILTY INSTEAD OF MALE JUDGES SLAPPING THEM ON THE WRIST AND SINCE THEY CAN NOT BE CURED THEY NEED TO BE EXECUTED! IF THEY RAPED (IT'S NOT JUST BEING MOLESTED, FOLKS) AND THEN ESPECIALLY IF THEY KILLED THAT CHILD THEY NEED TO BE PUT TO DEATH AND PUT TO DEATH QUICKLY, NOT AFTER YEARS
AND YEARS OF APPEALS! THAT IS THE ONLY WAY TO START RIDDING THESE SICKOS FROM THE FACE OF THE
EARTH!

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When it comes to catching and prosecuting those who prey on children, any method is okay by me. I suspect your stance on this is going to be an unpopular one.

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I have to admit, I LOVE TCAP. It never fails to make me laugh, because there's some seriously warped, hilariously twisted deviants out there. One guy who wanted a young girl to perform sex acts on a cat before having them done to himself, the guys who think grainy full on shots of their genitals are appropriate things to send to teen boys (or girls). Ah, thanks for the wacky memories, Chris Hansen! I love your pithy judgemental interviews...

If it weren't for this and Heroes, 30 Rock and The Office, there'd be nothing to watch on NBC.

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There is a problem with To Catch a Predator, though, and there's a former producer right now that's engaged in some sort of legal action against NBC News because of it.

I wrote about it here a couple months ago:
http://iamatvjunkie.typepad.com/i_am_a_tv_junkie_a_blog_f/2007/05/former_dateline.html

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Adam's argument isn't so much the method, but it's the televised exploitation by NBC that concerns him.

He's absolutely right, it isn't good journalism, it's nothing short of sensationalist, yellow journalism. It's just another sad entry in our culture's voyeuristic decline.

If the capture and punishment of sex offenders is that important to see, the last I checked there isn't an admission charge to local courts, nor are there commercials.

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"Maybe you don't like it because you support what these guys do."

Why are people so quick to overreact?

I agree with you Adam, the level of exploitation is just a bit...icky. I don't know why people would want to watch this kind of stuff.

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As far as I'm concerned, all the perverts they caught should die anyway. why put them in jail when we all know these sickos are going to prey on young kids again when they get out.

It always amazed me how many of these men watched "Dateline" before, yet they're still showing up at those decoy's house trying to have sex with young teens. they obviously know what they are getting themselves into and I'm just glad that somebody out there is catching these bastards. I have no idea why the Texas DA is refusing to prosecute those men, but it's a decision he's going to regret.

at the end of the day, the show is bringing more awareness to the danger of child molesters trying to contact children over the Internet, a problem that I think most people heard about but had no idea how real it is until they see the faces of these predators on TV.

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I am by no means pro-predator, but I only saw the first in this series, because something about it has always seemed trashy to me. Some people who are seeking the children, are mentally ill. I don't mean that they are incapable of thinking but that the wiring in their brain is such that the control they have over certain needs is minimal. They are sick, and while do believe they need punishment and I wouldn't want them left in a room with a child, I also don't know if it is the correct thing to torment them.

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Borat, NBC's exploitation of the sickos is "icky", but what the sickos are doing isn't? Yeah....

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Its just one more step towards having televised executions.

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I'm not one to defend predators but there are people who do for a living - that is to say that they are defense attorneys who defend child abusers or predators. I can picture a sharp defense attorney getting someone off because (he might claim) his client can't get a fair trial as a result of being "outed" on national TV and as a result the potential jury panel is tainted. Yes it's true that the police use similar methods, but when they don't do it in front of an audience. Can you imagine what happens if they get the wrong guy? There is a difference between this sort of "journalism" which is barely better than what the tabloids practice - if it's better at all. This sort of thing disgusts me.

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This is just another instalment of reality TV. And I hate all reality TV (well not all of it but everything that does not make me feel that I am just watching something because somebody gets humiliated).

There are other shows like this out there who work like this in a much lighter environment, following mall detectives or city employees enforcing no-litter-policies in parks or people handing out parking tickets. The next higher level is filming people who cheat on their wife or don't bay alimoney. And the top level is this.

The problem behind all of it is that you can ruin someones life by this even IF s/he is innocent. THAT is my problem with these shows, not just TCAP. Additionally I don't like any of these shows if they follow people who do not work in law enforcement or have government-employed like bounty hunters. That's pretty much all I could take. They are not exactly law enforcement... but kind of. But too many of these shows film vigilantes. An that's where I draw the line.

Additionally every time you have somebody kill themself you should ask yourself whether you've done something wrong. There are, of course, people who are accused of just theft or embezzlement who kill themselves over reports about their doings but still. Every person who kills themself over a new report is one too many.

I just wanted to say that people who watch TCAP most likely also watch Paris Hilton on Larry King Live or the Anna Nicole coverage. They a voyeurs who need this ugly fix.

The problem with TCAP is: they are trying to catch people who need to be procecuted. But in the end every TV network just puts stuff on the air to sell advertising time. What I would like to have is this show off the air AND them still producing the show. But that won't happen. So in the end to do the world something "good" they depend on voyeurs to watch the ads around their show to "pay" for the show they are doing. And per definition, voyeurs are also kind of sick. Every time you do something and feel Schadenfreude something is wrong. Something with the show you are watching - and with you for watching it.

It would be better if all fans of TCAP would donate some money to organizations who take care of violated children or take care of their children so they feel they don't need to talk to people like this on the internet (if you play with your child it most likely won't be able to chat with a stranger) or to write a letter to your local mayor or your congressman(or woman) to give the local law enforcement extra money to catch these people. Because I think this kind of show is targeted at the viewers primal instincts. By watching the show the viewer gives in to these instincs a little bit like - just like the predetaor on the show give in to his primal side in a huge way.

I guess that's what's wrong with this show. Defending this show comes across like saying the end justifies the means. And I think that's wrong.

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I am also going to agree with what seems like the unpopular opinion. TCAP has always seemed to me to be the worst kind of voyeurism and about one step away from public hangings. Yes, the people in it are bad, yes they should be caught and sent to prison, but to do so on camera and for people's entertainment is detrimental to the whole process in a number of ways.

a) It does help to sensationlialize and reinforce the belief that there is a predator around every corner (there isn't) and that the greatest danger to our children is being abducted by a stranger, met on the internet or otherwise (it isn't, 90% of child abuse cases are still perpetrated by people the children know and trust, and even these cases are low compared to, say, being run over by a car).

b) A very unpopular argument, but as a Forensic psychologist, I feel it needs to be said. It does not help those further down the line trying to work with and rehabilitate these people. There are many reasons people abuse children and yes, their crimes are horrific and they should be punished, but barring madatory execution (the death penalty is a discussion for another day) or life imprisonment (quite frankly impractical and expensive in the long run), they are going to be released at some point and there are a number of child sex abusers who are profoundly disturbed, who with the right kind of treatment, will never offend again (it's not 100%, but any gain is better than no gain). By humilitating them, putting them on national television (making reintegration into society difficult) and essentially treating them as animals, this makes any sort of treatment that much more difficult.

c) On a more practical note, like with Megan's Law, having their identities made public actually harms public protection, as many will not register when released, or disappear, making keeping an eye on them that much more difficult.

d) Also on the practical side, it can be used by defence lawyers to harm the prosecution. Also, like someone said, many of these men MUST watch the show, and yes, the stupid ones will make the meetings anyway, but they are not all stupid, and by televising the methods that real police use to catch them, ultimately you are undermining the efforts of the police. They will catch on, they will find ways around it!

So yes, predators should be caught and I applaud the efforts of the police in doing so but no, this should not be televised for practical as well as ethical reasons.

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Awww,the sexual perverts are being humiliated. Jeez.

I hope the citizens of that county are gathering recall petitions to oust that dumb ass DA.

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I don't think anyone on this thread would be pro-predator. This is not my idea of entertainment in the least.

From an ethical standpoint, Blackgem makes some compelling points from a forensic standpoint and I'm against this show from a journalistic standpoint.

Journalists are supposed to report the news, not make the news. We had a scandal in our town that made national news because the local radio station (my company's rivals, mind you) decided to do some "investigative journalism" to try to discredit the local chief of police. They created (and ultimately falsified) a diploma for the police dog, which was introduced into a law suit against the chief, helped get a drug dealer's charge reduced (the chief was involved in the arrest and this was before the radio station's involvement was revealed and the shadiness behind the diploma for the dog came to light). Ultimately, the law suit was dismissed, the dog diploma discredited and the radio manager faced potential charges, but not until the damage had been done.

Yes, predators need to be caught. Yes, they deserve prison. No, Dateline shouldn't be creating news in this fashion. They should just report what law enforcement does.


http://thecourier.typepad.com/popgoestheculture/

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Two excellent posts on this topic by blackgem and Mariah. I know that locking away people is always the easiest way but for me with all of these shows I always wonder if the person who is caught would have acted that way if the bait would be less tempting. This is the most extreme version of the "trap" kind of shows - it ranges from the lost wallet and the "why didn't you give it back" over the boyfriend trap to this. And all the time I wonder if I would give back the money to the rightful owner - what if I were the "cheating" boyfriend who I don't know anything about and why and if I could be tempted to cheat on my girlfriend because of who knows what was going on during the time that hot babe, the bait, tried to lure me in to her venus trap. And honestly I can not even stand watching TCAP because I honestly don't want to put myself into the shoes of the target. I don't want to justify what he was doing with his possible abuse when he was a child and therefor his own interest in abusing children or having a chemical imbalance in this brain or simply being totally dumb or retarded. I don't want to think about stuff like this I can't justify seing a child as a sexual object because the woman he meets turns out to be to young for him and he really has to force himself to do the right thing and not pursue it. I am simply not that much of a hateful person that I can simply say that ALL the men who are caught on the show simply deserve it because I know how the media is able to spin a story in the most perverse way. I can't imagine how many people who were tried to get caught on all these shows did NOT take the bait and were simply NOT shown on TV because doing the right thing is so completely boring. Nobody wants to see that. Nobody wants to hear the story of the good boyfriend who turned the hot girl down. Everybody wants to see the cheating bastard get caugt, the person who does not turn back the wallet get confronted, the person who spits the gum on the sidewalk getting fined because we all love to watch and feel Schadenfreude. Until we get fined. Until we get caught. Because the person we are all closest to is ourselves and we ALL did something wrong in our lives. I hate these voyeuristic and demeaning shows. I can't stand them, starting with Big Brother via all the Talent shows and their early episodes making fun of all the untalented losers and ending with TCAP. There are other ways to enforce the law. The news media should get back to telling us who among the politicians is a liar because THAT is something a simple police officer hasn't learned to do and isn't supposed to. I hate it that the TV networks are more and more catering to the smallest common denominator, our primal instincs. It sucks. And I want them to stop it.

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If a person is found in a bank after hours and has tools to crack a safe it would be a stretch to say this person could be innocent.
Likewise when these men are driving in some cases hours to a house they believe has an under age female waiting alone.
I fail to see where the males can say they are innocent.
They just want to talk and be friends. This is the number one line you hear from the men.
Personally, when a suicide happens to one of these caught men I raise my glass to Chris Hanson and crew.
Many less victims as a result.
There is such a thing as "intent".

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