On the surface, To Catch A Predator may seem like it was a moral net-positive. The Dateline series helped apprehend multiple criminals before they could target more children. That, at least on paper, sounds like a good thing. Predators, a new documentary delving into the repercussions of the popular show, however, argues that its legacy is a lot more complicated than that.
“A cultural sensation from its inception in the early 2000s, Dateline NBC’s candid-camera investigative series To Catch A Predator ensnared sex offenders and lured them to a film set, where they would be interviewed and arrested while cameras rolled. The show was a hit and transformed its host Chris Hansen into a moral crusader and TV star, while spawning a worldwide industry of imitators and vigilantes,” the documentary’s logline reads. “But why did we watch so voraciously — and why do we continue to devour its web-based, clickbait-driven offshoots?”
“Looking back on the show and the countless franchises it spawned, filmmaker David Osit turns his camera on journalists, actors, law enforcers, academics, and ultimately himself, to trace America’s obsession with watching people at their lowest,” the film’s synopsis continues, before promising to “delve into the murk of human nature to observe hunter, predator, subject and spectator alike, all ensnared in a complicated web of entertainment as far as the eye can see.”
A new trailer for the documentary includes …
I would say it started with Cops before this show come to life. Folks think they are watching about LE, but in reality, subconsciously, the subplot is to watch those who in society are at a low point. It feeds the kicking of those who are down and in a lower class than those who are the majority watcher. Do you ever see a rich or well dressed person get shown on the show? Nope. Think we’d ever see the drunk RI AG on video broadcast on Cops? Nope, not edgy enough. (She got a six months suspension w/o pay by her office for saying she was an AG too BTW.) Get a catchy theme song and let’er ride, no pun intended. Now, it has spawned other shows of the same genre. Sick.
And people wonder why the registry is a great too to use against others? Because people have lost all value of their fellow human in their eye for an eye line of thought and love to continue to feel better about themselves while stepping on their fellow human, until it impacts them.
Is the show coming back or is the show being scrutinized?
No, I don’t and I am an American. He emboldens those who feel they can mete out their own justice if they feel the law didn’t do enough or just make life miserable. Love to see him taken down by third party responsibility when someone uses him as their inspiration and it backfires. The fine print can advise one thing but when it’s not heeded, people can get hurt or even killed.
COPS, JERRY SPRINGER, Dr. PIMPLE POPPER, MY 600 IB LIFE….and this CATCH THE PREDATOR show demonstrate societal values by many Americans in my opinion. Chris Hansen is an opportunist who made $$$ off of glamorizing repugnant behavior. Obviously, people should not be doing such a thing but to explode it for entertainment value and money is equally unacceptable.
The family of Bill Conradt, the Assistant DA from the Dallas, Tx. area, who sadly committed suicide rather than be exposed by Chris Hansen and his show, reached an out-of-court settlment with NBC after the Federal Courts ruled that the family’s civil law suit could proceed to trial. The court ruled that there were indeed valid claims of which a jury should decide liability. These claims included intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil rights violations. The family was seeking $105 million in compensation.
The NBC/Hansen show was cancelled very close in time with the settlement of this lawsuit. The show’s last episode aired in late December 2007 and the cancellation became official very soon thereafter. The civil suit settlement was announced in June 2008. You are invited to reach your own conclusions if the two events were related.
The amount of the settlement has never been disclosed, but if I were a betting man, I would guess it was easily in the $millions.
If nothing else, This show’s legacy shows us that ANYONE is capable of falling into any destructive behavior, if given the right circumstances. No one should sit in pride saying that they are morally virtuous while others are monsters, because life may show you just how quickly it can flip on you.
And of course that garbage info-tainment show can be directly attributed to the rise of all the chat room police stings today. Not only that, it put those with sex offenses in the spotlight in an inaccurate and misleading way with increased paranoia and legitimized the “stranger danger” mythos.
Heck, I don’t even recall hearing the word “pedo” or it’s usage until after that show was cancelled.
To Catch a Predator not only showed people their lowest, but televised it talking about what they planned on doing to a ” minor”, which most people would find disgusting. These shows started showing these people as predators and devalued them as human beings. Just like the registry shows us at our lowest, while everyone has believed all on the registry are monsters. Being on the registry devalues you as a human being in the eyes of society and doesn’t help when politicians use people forced to register as punching bags.