Dateline needs to rethink "Predator" series
I know. I know. I can be waaaay behind the pop-culture curve sometimes simply because I'm waaaay too focused on SPJ. :)
Only recently did I see for the first time an episode of NBC Dateline's popular "To Catch a Predator" series. The hubby was watching and asked me to put down my trusty laptop long enough to take in a few minutes of the program. He wanted to know what I made of the whole thing -- me being Miss Journalism-Ethics-Now-Journalism-Ethics-Forever and all.
Boy, was I disturbed -- just as much by what I consider all sorts of ethical problems with the "news-gathering" as by the creepy guys who were showing up at a house thinking they were going to score with a 14-year-old girl.
A student recently wrote to National Ethics Committee Chairman Gary Hill and me, asking what we made of this ongoing series. Gary, a longtime television broadcaster and director of investigations at KSTP-TV News in Minneapolis, did a masterful job of explaining his qualms about this series. I hope you'll read what he has written because he nicely covers many of my own sentiments.
It's important to note: Gary tackled this issue BEFORE a former county district attorney in Texas ensnared in a sting committed suicide Nov. 5. According to a story appearing in the Dallas Morning News, Dateline had no direct contact with the man -- but a crew was standing outside when he shot himself.
I suppose more journalists didn't make a bigger deal about this -- heck, I couldn't find even a mention of the suicide on Romenesko's rolling discussion -- because said suicide happened on a Sunday just before a hectic election week. The man's death -- no matter what kind of allegations he faced -- should make all of us rethink the merits of this kind of investigative reporting.