Perverted Reality

I saw a promo this morning on Today for a Dateline story, "To Catch a Predator".

It's at least the second in a series, in which the show stings online predators:

1. Decoys go to online chat rooms posing as underage girls and boys.
2. They lure the guys - aged 21 into their late forties, in the current episode - with promises of sex with the underage decoy.
3. The guys come to the house Dateline has rented for the ambush zone.
4. They drop the sting; the decoy is an actor, and they are on film.
5. They interview the suspects.
6. The local cops then move in and make the arrest.

On the one hand, I'm happy to see these people being stung. Good riddance (assuming they're tried and convicted).

And the stories are intensely affecting; I feel my skin crawl watching them.

On the other hand, this is the second in the series of such reports. And we're into sweeps - one of the periods when ratings are measured.

The first time was news. This time, it's a perverted reality show; the pornography of creepy Schadenfreude.

Posted by Mitch at May 10, 2006 08:09 AM | TrackBack