Watched "To Catch a Predator" on MSNBC last nite

Those guys were totally stupid. They all wanted sex with 13-14 year olds.
All except one stayed and chatted with the host.

Last nite they had a minister and a youth minister busted.

From details on the website not one has been found innocent. They either were found guilty, pled guilty or still going thru the process. Although it seems like some may have gotten off easy.

good show to get it out there that if you are a perv..people are looking for you...but I am SO SICK of that show and hearing about it everywhere. I agree with you, the people on there are freaks. It really is crazy some what some of those people's professions are.

When they finally have the perv suspect undeniably in place, that reporter comes out of the other room with such a smirk on his face....
It seems totally inappropriate, like the guy is thinking "This is soooo great! The ratings are gonna go through the roof!"
and they probably do.
NOT expressing sympathy for the suspects; just taking issue with the reporter's glee...

Why would/should there be sympathy for the suspect?

The perps are heinous predators, but there's something wrong with watching some guy get his life ruined on TV by a preordained ambush.

Creeps me out.

-85% Jimmy

no one other than the perps decide for themselves to show up at the ostensible teenagers' houses.

I always delight when bad guys are humiliated on television.

I thought that was extra disgusting.

The guy said, "My wife is going to divorce me over this. I'm going to lose everything..."

Yeah, buddy. Did you think she was going to be thrilled if she found out? Going online to set up sex with an underage kid is totally over the top, but to actually get in your car, drive an hour to get there, and then take your minor son with you...it's beyond sick and disgusting!

that there are no girls on the internet. On teh internets all the women are men, all the men are men and all the teenagers are FBI agents.

How they find perverts dumb enough to catch every week is beyond me.

The talking head's vicious pleasure at torturing the perverts is disgusting.

There is something about that show, other than the wierdness of the host, that makes me very uneasy. While I certainly have no particular sympathy for the perverts, I am also aware that as lot of people consider the internet and their appearances on it as all play acting.

I'm sure nobody on this board is guilty of assuming a different identity, claiming to be older or younger, claiming virginity or even pretending to be twelve years old. Or pretending to be prettier, smarter, righer or more accomplished than they really are.

I can't quite wrap my arms around it, but I keep geeting the feeling that the people who are bringing this to is are nearly as perverted as are the idiots wanting to pull something patently perverted and illegal.

That whole bunch is disgusting. I'm betting they are all republicans-on both sides.

anything to distract from the REAL crimes being committed by and on behalf of Bu$hCo.

anyone else notice that aside from KO, and the Winger Squadron (Tweety, Tucker and Scarborough*), MSNBC has become pretty much All Prison Planet, All The Time?

(* - reminds me of Tarzan, Tonto, and Frankenstein)

and on for months. Don't these guys ever wise up? Even before this program started there was a lot of news about on line predators getting busted. I don't have any respect either for the producers or viewers of the program. I believe they are not much better than the perverts.

they even busted the same guy twice.

lord help us all for this kind of programming

where are the hidden cameras at the Cheney energy meetings?

at the Rove/Sampson meetings?

now THOSE would serve a purpose

I don't have any sympathy for the perps, who drive up to 2 hours in anticipation of sex with a 13 year old. But the whole thing smacks of entrapment, and that's something I have a problem with. How do the internet conversations get started? The show never reveals that, they just show snippets of chatroom and IM exchanges. I wonder this because I've watched a couple episodes and I really believe most of those losers when they say they haven't done anything like this before. Why the fuck WOULD a preteen offer sex to a flabby 36 y.o creep who sends her (or him) a picture of his penis? So these pervs get all excited, thinking it's finally going to happen for them and take the undercover cop up on the offer. But that's not how child predation usually happens. The perpetrator picks out and pursues the victim, not the other way around. I don't get the sense that most of these guys would be active predators. They saw what looked like an easy opportunity and took it. I'm not crying for them because they're going to jail, but I don't see how that show is really protecting any kids. Most molesters are relatives or trusted family friends or authority figures anyway.

Couldn't one of these guys say that?
Would he get away with it?

"I really thought she was fibbing about her age and was really thirty-two"

Doesn't the court have to prove that these guys went there because they thought they were having sex with a minor? If so then the whole thing is based on the thoughts of the perp. So couldn't he just say he thought everyone lied on the internet and didn't really expect to meet up with a teen. Even after she identifies herself on the scene, couldn't he say he thought this was all part of some role playing game?

Just curious. Yes, these guys are criminals, but something still stinks about this program. Whats next, getting busted on television for buying a dime-bag? Jeezum, give me a break.

I'm not at all suggesting we don't use any and all appropriate techniques for catching these pervs, but setting things up for ratings and entertainment value is extremely dangerous. The line between entrapment and good police work is blurry enough--make it a profitable business and make sure the bad guys are hard/impossible to empathize with and you're halfway to a witch trial scenario.
Sure, these guys are pervs (and idiots) for responding to these offers over the internet, but what really bothers me is the leap almost everyone is making--that this is a huge problem that the show is somehow helping to solve. I know and understand that kids are abused and sexually molested in shocking numbers and that IS a huge problem. I'm asking specifically about the situation they dramatize...how many under aged children are setting up meetings with pervs over the internet?
I know that of all child abuse, the Internet plays an almost non-existent role statistically, yet we're deluged with public service messages warning that MySpace, etc. are endangering our kids. The truth is your kids are much more likely (some say 95%!) to have an unfortunate encounter with a perv in your own family than a stranger. Even the FBI statistics suggest that after family, other local pervs far outnumber incidents of pervs using the Internet to find victims.
Essentially, I guess I'm asking, "Is it true that ALL the minors offering sex to pervs on the Internet are FBI or TV sting artists?" I think it just might nearly be. In which case, these shows are busting pervs who are fishing in dirt fields--the fish (children) weren't really in danger. That said, sure, these guys have proven they want to catch fish and I'm glad they aren't out there figuring out that the Internet isn't the best fishing, but the whole made-up-ness of the situation really irks and concerns me.

NBC could be doing some worthwhile investigative journalism, but instead they promote this kind of crap, which does two things. One, it promotes the idea that there is a molester around every corner and we are in danger, danger, danger all the damn time. I am convinced it is not nearly as widespread as they seem to think. Two, it turns journalists into a branch of the police, when they really need to stay objective.

And it's just sensationalistic crap.

Then the guilt just grew too great, and I could no longer take any pleasure from watching it.

committed the crime. It isn't showing up there. The crime is soliciting a minor for sex online, so they are already busted.

edited for wrong word