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Critic of NBC Dateline Wins Top Journalism Award
January 17, 2008 8:30 AM
The winners of the 2008 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University awards, which recognize and honor "the best in television and radio journalism," include a Dallas television station's investigation of a Dateline "To Catch a Predator" program in Murphy, Texas, which led to an alleged predator committing suicide when NBC News cameras showed up outside of his home.
NBC News officials, who had strongly criticized the Dallas station's report, were in the audience because Dateline won its own award for another story that did not involve an undercover sting of alleged predators.
ABC News affiliate, WFAA-TV in Dallas, was honored for "Television Justice," a trio of reports detailing problems in NBC News' collaboration with the Murphy, Texas police department to conduct a sting operation for the "To Catch a Predator" series.
"This is an old-fashioned gum-shoe investigation in the era of Internet sex and reality television, conducted with restraint and methodical reporting," a summary of WFAA's investigation taken from the jurors' comment read on the duPont site.
"The investigation turned up problems of police cooperation with the 'Predator' crew in scouting location of possible Internet sex predators; law enforcement professionals wearing television camera for the 'Predator' crew; and many prosecutions that never resulted in convictions," the site said of reporter Byron Harris' and producer's Mark Smith's reports.
Information from WFAA's series led ABC News' Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross to begin his own report on the Dateline show which aired on "20/20."
NBC and Perverted Justice have both strongly defended their actions, and a few days after the ABC News broadcast released an extensive statement calling ABC News' investigation "seriously flawed."
But Dateline producers had to swallow their pride during the award ceremony when WFAA was honored. Read how the NBC producers reacted.
NBC News was also selected to receive an award for Dateline's "The Education of Ms. Groves." The episode profiles a young teacher working in an inner-city middle school through the Teach for America program.
Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
January 17, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (8)
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DatelineNBC, was a bunch of garbage to begin with. When Dateline planted explosive devices in those GM trucks and ran a car into them and told the American people the trucks were unsafe, they should have been sued for millions. Then they bring Musliums into a Nascar Race and hope to see people jumping them, but instead the race fans greeted them like everyone else. NBC is a piece of left wing junk and i remember last year when one of their reporters was RUN out of a convention it was hillious on utube. Good reporting by that station in Dallas, I still BOYCOTT GE applainaces and products
Posted by: steve | Jan 17, 2008 11:23:52 AM
To catch a predator series on NBC. A series catching a criminal about to commit a crime. The bait pretend to be 12 or 13 yrs old. Not wanting to get caught, the child rapist commits suicide. Many cases on camera proved that the criminal would say they did not know the age of the child. Yet every time on camera, the bait would tell them the age. He got caught planning to have sex with a child. ABC gets an award for being against a program on a competitor network because a child molester kills himself. I just wish more child molesters would join him.
Posted by: Angie | Jan 17, 2008 12:51:15 PM
I have never been in favor of using entrapment. In Calif there are laws on the books about this.
Posted by: BTL musings | Jan 17, 2008 11:08:17 PM
I am all for getting pedophiles off the street.
The organization setting up the men who eventually get caught gets paid PER STING
$75,000 per sting.
"Perverted Justice" ..they are just that
The more stings they get the more money they make. To be exact Not too bad to pretend you are a 13 year old at a keyboard.
This reaks !
As a matter of fact the information came off the O'Reilly Factor and he is certainly not one who would try to expose any one involved in something like this because it fits nicely into his primal urge mentality.
A minute late he was saying they get paid by the "sting", $75,000 to be exact.
Money corrupts. Predator is corrupt
In addition, I am real tired of Hansen and his moronic judgemental questions.
We have a right to know exactly how this guys are being lured to these homes.
Look up entrapment. Some of the chat dialogue I see reviewed on this show sure seems to fit, it is aggressive in trying to get these guys to bite at the bait.
I am completely against injustice.
Posted by: John | Jan 19, 2008 12:20:03 PM
Best turn off the TV because you will see how many predator garbage cans are living in the USA ready to assault your child and ruin everybodys life. You need a outsourced military because of the gang infiltration and other reasons you think they will guard your patriotism???? HARDLY, one just run off to Mexico to avoid the death penalty and left a trail of help by the ft bragg swagg. Now let us get back to kissie poo on the celebrity carpets and not ask questions.
Posted by: daddyblue | Jan 21, 2008 12:35:19 PM
This is pretty much why I really do not believe in Reality Shows. Most them have to phony given how can anyone be themselves if they're being filmed?
There's no way anyone can tell whether "Catch a Predator" is being honest that those they caught are really sexual predators or were good average guys lured into an entrapment by women who claim they're adults, etc.
BTW, given how long "CaP" was on the air, would the real predators by now be wise to not fall for these traps, especially given "CaP" has been operating in the *same* town for so long? Any predator would have to be real stupid if they can't see the address they were given to be in Murphy, Texas.
Posted by: GWP | Jan 22, 2008 9:02:59 AM
If you think these scum are being entrapped, read the chat logs for yourself. The contributers posing as young boys and girls are not the ones who initiate the sick questions (r u a virgin?, do you shave down there?) and are not the ones who initiate a meeting. These "adults" need to be held accountable, and if they are too dumb to seek help or remove themselves from the gene pool, they should be on t.v. for all to see and at least be known, humiliated, and prosecuted.
Posted by: Whitney | Jan 26, 2008 1:31:34 PM
I am all for catching pedophiles who look to have sex with any age of minors. I actually really liked the show, "To Catch A Predator".
I can see how it was flawed, NBC should have backed off and let the police do their work without interfering but just
documenting it instead.
It still would have made great television and the convictions would have stuck! They just did it all wrong, that's all.
Otherwise I completely support it, and everyone I know pretty much feels the same way!
At least they were bringing to light what a problem there is out there with these sick creepy weirdos trying to groom and molest our kid's! Parents need to wake up!
Stranger danger IS real, especially online!
Maybe one day the show will come back and they will do it better, I will be watching and supporting!
Posted by: Krista | Jan 29, 2008 12:10:18 PM
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