On Overreacting

Today's post about the Palm Beach Butt Crack Patrol reminded me of something my oldest son and I caught yesterday while flipping channels during Twilight Zone marathon commercials: another "To Catch a Predator" with Chris Hansen.

My concerns about the blurring between "Only Ones" and "Authorized Journalists" notwithstanding, we do generally find the show good for a few laughs at the loser idiot scumbags, and yesterday was no exception. But they've started doing something I don't remember from earlier shows: Now, in addition to the bellowing horde of weapons-ready tacklers, they've started having some guy in a ghillie suit emerge from the bushes to make first contact.

For some reason, it struck us as really funny, maybe because we weren't expecting it, and our first reaction was to wonder why Chewbacca was making a cameo on Dateline NBC. Then we started laughing and extrapolating fantasy scenarios about other ways to scare the hell out of people, for instance, jumping out of the bushes roaring like a monster while wearing a team mascot costume, or as the Mugato from Star Trek...

But that was just stupid boys having stupid fun, and the larger point was not lost: Here's Chris Hansen confronting these guys alone but for a hidden camera crew that emerges at the finale, possibly unwisely for being unarmed, and then the amount of force present to make the arrest just really stands out starkly against that.

Maybe I'm the one overreacting here, but I remember a time when these kinds of deployments were reserved for murderers, bank robbers, desperados...

Ah well. It's all just entertainment anyway, right?

Chris Hansen: NBC's Undercover Cop

Speaking of journalism, Dateline NBC, the same folks who brought us the rigged exploding crash test, has crossed another line.

"Dateline's ongoing hidden camera investigation into computer sex predators--grown men, trolling the Web for sex with minors. This time, police are making arrests..." the MSNBC subhead for "To Catch a Predator III" announces.

Good. Damned perverts deserve to be crucified. If it was my kids, I'd gut 'em like a trout.

Which is hardly the point. By partnering with law enforcement to engineer arrests, "correspondent" (why not "undercover deputy"?) Chris Hansen has shed the role of journalist and taken on that of police investigator. A key function of a free press--although you wouldn't know it from the preponderance of "gun control" and other state-worshipping editorials--is to act as a watchdog against abuse of power, not as a guard dog alerting civil authority to misdeeds.

And it's not like NBC affiliates haven't partnered with such authority before.

If the ratings are good--and the "cause" is certainly one that elicits public interest and sympathy--why not expand the concept to other crimes?

How about if they have the cops waiting while they host a gambling sting, or entrap Johns with prostitutes, or--I know--set up a drug bust. I mean, nobody likes those crackheads, right?

No? Still too many in the "conservative gun owner" camp who think these wretches get what they deserve?

Good, because if ratings reward the concept, advertising revenues will grow. Once the networks--and why not newspapers, too?--see how profitable it is to partner with police, there's no limit to how far this can be exploited.

What does it take to elevate the threat level so it even appears on our radar as a concern? Do we need to have our ox gored by the police/reporter alliance?

What if the promo read:

"Dateline's ongoing hidden camera investigation into Second Amendment fanatics who purchase firearms in defiance of sensible gun laws. This time, police are making arrests...."

It's not the same thing? It doesn't need to be. Once we establish that the proper role of journalists is to facilitate arrests for lawbreaking, we will have lost a key independent check and balance over authority. A partnership of private journalists with the state is a hybrid that needs to be exposed for what it is: fascist propaganda.

No matter how "good" the cause.

Or we can not care, watch the shows with voyeuristic fascination, tell ourselves that the end justifies the means...

Maybe in a few years, we'll get to see Geraldo or some clone actually slap the cuffs on the perp, hand him over to a cop, look into the camera and end the show with an authoritative "Book him!"

Tags: NBC, police

We're the Only Ones Chatty Enough

San Jose police now say that "Rob" was actually Robert Davies, a 40-year-old police officer in the nearby city of San Mateo. He allegedly asked Esther to switch to Snapchat, where messages automatically self-delete. There, they "discussed her being 16 years-old, and chatted about engaging in sexual activity," a statement from the department said. [More]

Oh God, it's Chris Hansen!

[H/T Wirecutter]

We're the Only Ones Secret Enough

Secret Service officer arrested in child sex sting [More]

Oh, no, it's Chris Hansen!

[Via Harvey]

To Catch a Predator

A senior State Department official in charge of federal counterterrorism programs was arrested Tuesday afternoon for allegedly soliciting sex from a minor... [More]

Gee, no way that could be compromised.

I wonder if Chris Hansen told him to have a seat...

We're the Only Ones "To Catch a Predator" Enough

A federal jury convicted a former Bibb County sheriff’s deputy Wednesday of a charge that he tried to entice a child for sex. [More]

Take a seat.

Oh no! Chris Hansen!!!

And as with all such "Only Ones" accounts, the Eternal Question remains unanswered...

And oh, looky here: today we have a twofer.

[Via Scott N and FFFW]

We're the Only Ones "To Catch a Predator" Enough

City Officer Kills Himself; Was Under Investigation For Child Porn

And Chris Hansen wasn't even involved.

I'm sure had they been taking a non-"Only One" into police headquarters, we'd have been armed, uncuffed and able to exit the patrol car, too.

[Via Avg Joe]

"Moral Panic"

The paper goes on to rip apart the media in blowing up these technopanics, often using outright incorrect or made up data, such as the idea that "50,000 sexual predators are online at any given time," a favorite of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The problem is that this number was made up out of nowhere.

And from this, legislation is enacted.

If you've agreed with any of my Chris Hansen posts, you should find this interesting. It discusses the manipulation behind the hysteria, as well as the results.

Not that we've ever seen that from our good friends and government watchdogs, the "Authorized Journalists"

[Via Sam W]