To Catch the Youth Market

A guest contribution by Christopher Olson, who has previously reviewed TV shows on the Indyish group blog:

It’s hard to imagine a television show about pedophiles to be without controversy. But then controversy makes for good ratings. Dateline is a news program known for its hard hitting investigations into suburban love triangles, coupled with pithy captions like “Cliffhanger” and “A Shot in the Dark”, that read more like the names of soft cover detective novels than the nightly news. But what makes their To Catch A Predator segment remarkable is that the interview is conducted before any crime has actually been committed, and is conducted in the location the crime is set to take place. By luring pedophiles to their filming locations using elaborate online exchanges with an undercover operative, the unsuspecting perverts appear right on cue, but are not quite ready for their close up.

Dateline is only the most recent example of ambush journalism. Mike Wallace invented the “ambush interview” for 60 Minutes, which often entailed chasing his subjects as they walked from their driveways to their front doors, hiding their faces from the dozen or so cameras placed strategically on their front yard. Host Chris Hansen, however, often leaves his subjects fleeing through the back entrance, only to be accosted by police officers and finally captured on tape. To his credit, Mike Wallace would later refer to “ambushing” as “great television, but bad journalism” in a 60 Minutes retrospective of his career.

But Dateline never came to the same conclusion. After nine shows, the premise of To Catch a Predator was starting to wear a little thin, so NBC took the show to the beach. First in Florida, and then in Ocean County, Chris Hansen interviewed child abusers on lawn chairs overlooking the calm ocean, rather than the drab kitchen counter that has become the show’s trademark. And unlike previous episodes, pedophiles were given a chance to talk with their intended victims–whether they be male or female–before getting busted. As an alleged investigation into child abuse, these are the types of twists you’d expect to see on Survivor or the next edition of Big Brother, not on your nightly news.

Don’t be fooled by the show’s attempts to pattern itself as the third wheel of justice- although they collaborate with the police and the watch group Perverted Justice, which orchestrates the obscene internet chat room exchanges you hear about on the show, To Catch a Predator is really about revenge. For TV audiences that have been inundated with the news of child kidnappings and child abuse, Dateline offers the perverse pleasure of watching pedophiles sweat it in the hot seat. Chris Hansen’s “interviews” are a mock trial meant to satisfy the audience’s curiousity into the workings of a depraved mind. After which, the subject is mocked by an oversized police force and driven into custody. A serious analyzation of child abuse would incorporate interviews with criminal psychologists, and perhaps a pattern of abuse would emerge. But Dateline doesn’t do well to dote on the serious ramifications of its research. The show has more in common with Ashton Kutcher’s Punk’d than actual journalism, as the objective is to humiliate rather than illuminate the cause of its man’s inhumanity to man, or child.

A pedophile’s only defense (if he even has one), is to claim that they themselves were the victims of child abuse. Dateline’s own indiscretions would be far more obvious if the show didn’t already associate itself with some of the lowliest members of society, and so far it has worked that to its advantage. The cult of celebrity, or the illusion of importance, can often get a near-do-well off the hook, as it did in the O.J. Simpson case, or just narrowly in the Michael Vick case–both football players, both black, but only one starred in The Naked Gun. In the case of BBC star Chris Langham, a successful writer and star of his own works for the screen, the discovery of child pornography on his computer came too late to affect the results of his sexual abuse case. But luckily for him, he has a convincing (or maybe the word is conniving) excuse for his possession of the offending materials: he was researching pedophilia for a script, and says he merely wanted to look into the eyes of evil. If Chris Langham is found guilty of only one thing, it’s obsessing over the crimes of others. If Chris Hansen is guilty of anything, it’s putting those faces on television. Too bad it isn’t a crime to peep on perverts.

Following the success of To Catch a Predator, NBC started cranking out the spin-offs, including To Catch a Con Man, To Catch a Car Thief, and most recently, To Catch a i-Jacker, which is a made up term for iPod theft. From a marketing perspective, it makes sense for NBC to package all of its news content in the guise of its most popular programming, especially in an industry led by FOX News, whose ratings soar at the same time their viewers’ comprehension of the complex issues of the day plummets. Even Canada’s W-Five has gotten in on the action. It should be said, though, that while other news broadcasts resort to hidden camera shows in order to survive the ratings wars, 60 Minutes continues to enjoy strong ratings while still sticking to its guns and its journalistic credibility. However, the average viewer of 60 Minutes is in the much maligned category of adult viewers aged fifty and over. So in order to catch the youth market, Dateline has To Catch A Predator.

Note: Don’t expect me to get into the controversy of Kid Nation, which has been accused of using adolescents for purely entertainment reasons. The Smoking Gun can cover that story.