All Blog Posts from Public Eye

Schadenfreude alert! On Friday, a woman identified as Dateline NBC's Michelle Madigan was outed at Defcon, an "Underground Hackers Convention" taking place in Las Vegas. Madigan, who "had a camera in a small black bag that allowed her to surreptitiously video tape people attending the show," reportedly "hoped to tape people admitting to breaking the law and then attempt to tie them to federal agents who also attended the show."

But Defcon founder Jeff Moss identified her -- making quite the show of it -- from the stage, in front of hundreds of convention-goers. As Madigan was escorted out of the conference to her car, some of them, along with some of the convention's credentialed journalists, followed. They took video of her, shouted questions, and, in some cases, heckled her. And yes, there were "To Catch A Predator" jokes.

Video of what went down is up on YouTube, and I encourage you to check it out before deciding where your sympathies lie. I've had my problems with Dateline in the past, and I'm not a fan of what they tried to pull off here – the hidden camera expose, like the anonymous source, is a journalistic tool that should only be used responsibly. And showing up at Defcon with a camera in your bag, hoping to get some hacker to say something incriminating, is a cheap tactic unlikely to yield anything more than sensationalistic images that don't do justice to the nuances of the story. There are times when going undercover is justifiable --unlike my colleague, I think this is one of them -- but I don't think that this attempt comes close to qualifying.

That said, those hackers sure are tough to sympathize with, aren't they? Watch the video if you haven't yet – the triumphalism on display doesn't exactly make you want to rally to the hackers' defense. The whole thing has this "burn the witch!" vibe, in fact, that makes you feel like you're watching grainy cell-phone footage from Salem, Massachusetts. The comments section on the video, somewhat surprisingly, is divided between those cheering the hecklers on and those criticizing them for going after a producer who was just "doing her job."

Read full post…

“Although the reports have been subject to some controversy, audience reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.”

--An NBC statement responding to a lawsuit from former "Dateline" producer Marsha Bartel, who claims she was fired for expressing ethical concerns to her superiors about the "To Catch A Predator" series. Among her complaints: That NBC "unethically pays" law enforcement officials and controversial vigilante group Perverted Justice; that the network "covers up the fact that law enforcement officials act improperly;" and that the identities of most of the Perverted Justice volunteers were kept secret from her, making it impossible to vet them. You can read the lawsuit at The Smoking Gun. And check out our take on the series from last February.

On March 28, as we noted, the Dayton Daily News reported that "Dateline NBC," in filming the fourth installment of its To Catch A Predator series, "compensated Perverted-Justice as 'consultants' for a weekend Internet sting that netted 18 people on attempted unlawful sexual conduct charges." Public Eye first looked at journalistic questions raised by the series in February, and others have raised similar issues.

The latest comes from The Washington Post, where Paul Farhi reports the amount Dateline paid Perverted Justice, a controversial citizen's organization that aggressively seeks to ferret out online predators, to create its latest sting. That amount? $100,000. Farhi also notes, as the Daily News did, that Dateline "went along with police officials' deputizing of the group's members, in effect turning 'Dateline's' made-for-TV operation into a law-enforcement action."

Read full post…

Back in February, I wrote a post asking if "Dateline" goes too far in its popular "To Catch A Predator" series. The series, which just completed taping for a fourth installment, centers on the exposure (and, in recent installments, arrest) of men ostensibly interested in having sex with children.

Now the Dayton Daily News brings word that criticism has greeted the newest iteration of the program, which is build around a sting in Darke County, Ohio. Dateline reportedly compensated members of the controversial "anti-predator organization" Perverted-Justice.com, covering expenses for them to enter chatrooms and pose as children interested in sex and to travel to the area of the sting. Dateline also worked with the Darke County's sheriff's office, which deputized three members of the Perverted-Justice.com organization.

"There are several ethics issues involved in this," Al Tompkins, who teaches ethics at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, told the Daily News. "There's concern when news departments become an arm of law enforcement. There should be a separation of journalists and police, and our job is to cover what they do but not enable and become a participant in the enforcement."

Read full post…

The third installment of "To Catch A Predator" aired Friday on NBC's "Dateline." The series, which has mostly stuck to the formula laid out in the first installment nearly two years ago, has become a staple of water cooler conversations on the strength of its striking central feature: The exposure on national television of men ostensibly interested in having sex with children.

Here's how it works: "Dateline" has volunteers pose as 12- or 13-year-olds and log in to chat rooms, where, as the accompanying online story explains, they wait "to be hit on by adults looking for sex. The…decoys tell the adults they are home alone and sometimes they say they are interested in sex, a few pretend they are eager to meet."

The volunteers, who come from Perverted-Justice, a controversial citizen's organization that aggressively seeks to ferret out online predators, engage in often stomach turning, sexually charged chats with the adults who contact them. One man, for example, writes the following to what he believes to be a 12-year-old girl: "yes I do want to come over--- would love to get you naked." That's relatively tame: Much of the chat room dialogue is too "graphic and disgusting" for "Dateline" to share. Some men, Dateline reports, send illicit photos of themselves to the decoys.

In each installment, dozens of men eventually show up at the address provided by the decoys, presumably for a sexual encounter. They enter the house, encouraged by an unseen and high-voiced decoy, and are soon confronted by "Dateline" correspondent Chris Hansen. Some of the men run; others, many of whom believe Hansen is law enforcement, accept his request for a conversation, which is recorded on hidden cameras. In this most recent installment of the series, they are arrested soon afterward.

It can be extremely difficult to discuss journalistic ethics when dealing with a topic such as this. "Dateline," many would argue, is exposing predators and getting them off the streets, and so high minded debates about the ethics of the program's methods do not come into the equation. I am sympathetic to that argument, and, indeed, I find the actions of the men featured in the program disturbing. But I don't think we can abandon questions of journalistic conduct just because our first instinct is that the ends justify the means.

Read full post…

We’re not in the habit of going out looking for things at networks other than CBS to pick at, but TVNewser tips us off this morning to an interesting – and somewhat shocking – incident involving a producer at NBC’s “Dateline.” According to this AP story, “Dateline” producer Shane Bishop offered a deal of sorts to Texas Governor Rick Perry and Florida Governor Jeb Bush:

“Waive the death penalty for a murder suspect, and he'll help solve three murder cases in their states.”

In the letter, uncovered by the Austin American Statesman through the open records law in Texas, Bishop says suspected killer Michael Ronning “has admitted to me that he has committed a total of seven murders” and promises help in solving at least some of the cases if the governors “guarantee not to pursue the death penalty.” More Bishop, from the letter:

“Why am I writing you to beg you take up this effort? Because it's the right thing to do. … But I am certain Dateline NBC would give substantial coverage to the solving of these three cold case murders tied to a serial killer, and the essential roles played by the Governors of Texas and Florida.”

NBC spokesperson Jenny Tartikoff is quoted in the story as saying Bishop wrote the letter on his own, not on behalf of “Dateline.” Still, the hint of “substantial coverage” of the cases, and especially the emphasis on the “special roles played” by the governors in solving these murders shows just how far journalists are sometimes tempted to go to get a story. To me, Bishop clearly went way too far in this case, what do you think?

Read full post…