Source: thedailybeast.com 1/26/25
During its three-year run on NBC, “To Catch a Predator” turned busting online pedophiles into blockbuster TV. Was the show a quest for justice—or just sordid, exploitative TV?
PARK CITY, Utah—Jimmy Kimmel aptly summed up Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator as “Punk’d for Pedophiles,” and during its 2004-2007 run, it became a national phenomenon.
A candid-camera sting operation designed to ensnare and arrest adult men who were planning to have sex with minors, the show was a reality-TV trailblazer, taking the formula pioneered by Cops and using it to shine a spotlight on deviants at their most guilty. Transforming host Chris Hansen into a journalistic celebrity and begetting a wave of copycats, it not only exposed an insidious threat that had grown exponentially worse courtesy of the internet, but also turned it—and its thwarting—into prime-time entertainment.
Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, Predators is a documentary inquiry into To Catch a Predator with an express interest in understanding the appeal of its template, its cultural legacy, its short- and long-term efficacy in curbing pedophilia, and the ethicality of its approach.
Directed by David Osit, it’s a conflicted non-fiction affair, and one made more complicated by the revelation that Osit’s reason for making the film is his own abuse, at age seven, at the hands of a grown-up. Initially teasing a condemnation, only to come away with something less certain and more fascinating, it straddles various lines, and perspectives, with impressive confidence.
The outgrowth of this show has led to issues in society as we’ve already seen. Be a good post on its own.