to catch a predator-related stories
Posted Oct 13th 2009 9:02AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Industry, Celebrities, Reality-Free

Before it got self-referential and started playing up its own celebrity, NBC
Dateline's "
To Catch a Predator" series was a distinct guilty pleasure. It did the heart good to see some genuinely depraved lowlifes humiliated on nationwide TV before heading off to prison where they'd no doubt meet predators more adept than themselves.
Meanwhile, with so many in Hollywood reaching out to defend confessed child rapist Roman Polanski, It was inevitable that some clever video editor would bring "Predator" host Chris Hansen and moviedom's most prominent pedophile together for a brief
interview on YouTube (video after the jump).
The exchange hits all of the "Predator" chestnuts as, whenever Hansen ambushed one of these depraved disasters, there'd be excuses and denials galore. Sadly, Polanski outlived the real "To Catch a Predator" as lame lawsuits involving tired notions of due process and entrapment ruined the fun for everyone.
Continue reading To Catch a Predator Catches up to Roman Polanski
Posted Feb 16th 2009 1:12PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals

NBC quietly canceled the Chris Hansen-starring reality vehicle
To Catch A Predator. Now it is planning to
launch a similar sort of program in
War Criminals which tracks down war criminals (obviously) and arrests them on camera.
Didn't these guys learn their lesson the first time around? Vigilante justice with a camera is still vigilante justice, and vigilante justice only works well in the comic books and movies. It works on television too, but only in the scripted variety and not like this.
Granted, prostitution with a camera is called pornography, but that's legal. It has a system to govern it and make sure it doesn't reach children or other inappropriate people (how effectively it works is another discussion). Even the government has expressed concerns about televised sting operations interfering in the legal apprehension of criminals.
While this may bring some short-term ratings to NBC, I don't see it lasting long. The last thing they need is another Bill Conradt-style lawsuit.
Posted Feb 1st 2009 1:15PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, News, Programming, Animation, Adult Swim, Children, Game Show, Super Bowl

If you're like me (you have my deepest sympathy), you don't have a dog in this Sunday's hunt.
Thanks to the Arizona Cardinals' first appearance this weekend, my hometown team, the New Orleans Saints, will now be one of only five left in the NFL that have never made a Super Bowl appearance. Three if you don't count the expansion clubs.
So if you're a Cardinals fan and don't have the stomach to endure their slow, agonizing and inevitable defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers, here are some alternative shows you can watch instead of the Super Bowl.
Continue reading Sick of the Super Bowl? Here's a sampler platter of what else you can watch
Posted Aug 16th 2007 11:20AM by Varun Lella
Filed under: News, Industry, Programming

Chris Hansen is one of the most feared men on the planet. In terms of scary, there's Kim Jong-il, Christopher Walken and then Mr. Hansen. If you see his face, it most likely means you are going to jail ... and it will be televised nationally.
If you don't know who Hansen is, you haven't been watching
Dateline's
To Catch a Predator -- the best thing to happen to
Dateline since Stone Phillips. The special segment focuses on finding, luring, embarrassing and arresting suspected pedophiles. It is a spectacle that can only be described as eerily addictive.
Recently,
Predator faced criticism and legal issues, when a suspect from the show committed suicide. Now, they face an even bigger challenge: ABC News.
Continue reading When news shows attack: 20/20 vs. To Catch a Predator -- Update
Posted Jul 24th 2007 2:03PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: News, Industry
NBC and the group Perverted Justice have worked together several times for Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" series, but now the network is being sued after one man in Murphy, Texas shot himself while police and camera crews surrounded his home.
The man, Bill Conradt Jr., an assistant county prosecutor, had been accused of engaging in a sexually explicit chat with an adult posing as a thirteen year old boy. Two dozen other men from the same area were also arrested, but the district attorney refused to prosecute, citing the involvement of amateurs in the sting operation. The city manager was also fired for allowing the sting to take place without permission from the mayor or city council.
Continue reading NBC sued after Predator suicide
Posted Jul 2nd 2007 8:02PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: News, OpEd
I've never been a fan of Dateline's "To Catch A Predator." Despite helping to put sexual predators behind bars, the series is tainted by egregious spectacle, and recently resulted in the suicide of one man in Murphy, Texas. Consequently, the district attorney has refused to prosecute the other twenty-four men who were caught in the sting.
Readers can discuss in the comments the value of one man's life over that of anyone else's, but that's not the point I'm trying to make. What I'm saying is, despite selling the show as some kind of humanitarian crusade, reporter Chris Hansen and the producers behind "To Catch A Predator" both want and need that moment of public humiliation for the show to work and for people to watch. They're putting out a fire, yes, but they're doing it by throwing manure on it.
Continue reading To Catch A Predator still going
Posted May 22nd 2007 2:28PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: News, Celebrities
NBC is trying to save money everywhere.
Longtime Dateline host Stone Phillips is being let go by the network, for money reasons. Phillips' current co-host, Ann Curry, will continue to do the show. I guess NBC wants someone in there who is already under contract and does other stuff at the network. Curry is the newsreader on The Today Show too. She'll be joined by various NBC reporters as rotating co-hosts.
No word on what Phillips will do now. I wonder why they didn't just keep him on and have him do other things at the network and MSNBC? Maybe he didn't want to, who knows.
Posted May 12th 2007 12:04PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: News, Video, Web
This Just In has a new video up featuring some hysterical outtakes from Dateline's "To Catch A Predator" series.
Okay, it's not really Dateline, and that's not really Chris Hansen, but it is really, really funny. The swearing is bleeped, but you might want to be careful about watching it at work or church anyway. Also, you shouldn't bring your wireless laptop to church, that's just rude. Jesus doesn't come to your house and play his banjo* while you're trying to watch TV, does he? That's right, they don't**.
Anyway, I placed the video after the jump.
[via CC Insider]
*I belong to a religious sect that believes Jesus was in an folk band
**This sect also believes Jesus was made of several smaller Jesuses, like Voltron
Continue reading To Catch A Predator: the outtakes - VIDEO
Posted Apr 11th 2006 8:40AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: News
Dateline NBC's journalistic integrity is being called into
question after it was revealed that the network paid an organization to set up a pedophile sting for an ongoing
investigation titled "To Catch A Predator." An organization called "Perverted Justice" was paid by
NBC to set up a sting operation in which sexual predators were lured to a house in Ohio where they were caught by
officials. NBC is insisting it did nothing wrong, and that Web-based crimes require new ways of approaching stories.
Others disagree, claiming that by money exchanging hands the credibility of the story was affected.
The USA Today piece also had this quote: "NBC said it received at least 15,000 letters or e-mails in
response to its February story. Not one parent complained about the journalistic methods used to film the piece,
[Dateline NBC executive producer David Corvo] said." Well, they certainly didn't receive any
complaints about NBC paying Perverted Justice, because no one knew about it when the segments aired.