'Dateline' Going To The Well Again

Dateline NBC is probably going to give in soon and change it's name to "Perv Ambush", and will become a weekly parade of embarrassed internet creeps caught in the act of trying to arrange sex with 'tweens. Tonight they air the fifth installment of the much buzzed-about series "To Catch A Predator", in which men who think they are on their way to a sexual rendezvous with an underage girl or boy arranged on the internets are instead met with cameras, bright lights, flabbergasted reporter Chris Hansen and, in the last couple of installments, the local authorities.

Like just about everyone else, as I watch these shows I'm stunned not only at the sheer volume of men who seems to be cruising the nets who are willing to go to sometimes great lengths to exploit underage kids, but that apparently Dateline can do this as often as they want, wherever they want, and the results will be pretty much the same. There's no question that this is makes for sensational viewing, allowing us to have both the salaciousness of the whole thing and simultaneously feel superior as comeuppance comes to the bastards who are trolling for children. Not only is it arresting television, but I think it actually serves the public interest to tell the world what kind of dangers are lurking out there in the quasi-anonymous world of the internets, a pseudo-real realm where it can seem at times like absolutely anything goes.

But indulge me just a moment while I offer what may be an unpopular opinion. Isn't this whole thing sort of starting to feel like exploitation by Dateline? I mean, of course we all want children protected and we all despise sexual predators. Dateline did us a service by calling attention to the fact that there are a lot of these pervs out there, looking to victimize the naive and vulnerable. But at this point, isn't this whole thing becoming the electronic-media age equivalent of presenting us with mustache-twirling villains in black capes and top hats so that we can boo and hiss? I wish I could tell the show "Point well made fellows, but now it's starting to seem like you're just trying to exploit and repeat past success by continually going after the easiest target there is (I mean c'mon--who out there would ever be pro sexual predator?). Time to move on to other important matters, even thought they may not be slam-dunks like this is."

I'm cynical by nature, so I could be wrong on this. Maybe we need to be reminded on a regular basis how dangerous the world is. And no doubt someone will read this and think that I'm suggesting sympathy for the creeps that are getting caught, though nothing could be further from the truth. But frankly, this recycling of what is essentially the same show over and over, with it's repetitive, emotional and easy morality play is starting to remind me just a bit of the Two Minutes Hate. That makes me just a bit wary. Anyway, there's a fine line between exposing a genuine evil on the one hand and returing over and ever to an area of easy success on the other. Perhaps it's time to tackle more challenging and (dare I say?) controversial matters.