TV FOCUS

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, Jul/Aug 2004 by Barnhart, Aaron

Newsroom-orchestrated stings, though popular with viewers, present concerns for stations

Thanks to an unusual partnership with a controversial Web site, television stations in Kansas City, Detroit and Milwaukee have depicted dozens of men on camera allegedly soliciting sex from children in their communities.

The images shown have a great deal of shock value, but concerns have been raised about the technique, which remains controversial. Viewers have flocked to stations to watch the heavily hyped series. They show area men knocking on the door of a stakeout house, where a volunteer from the Web site "perverted-justice.com" had led them to believe an underage boy or girl was meeting them for sex. What actually awaited them was a TV news crew. The stories have been riveting and the ratings strong. More such shows are apparently in the works in various markets. Stations in Portland, Ore., and Philadelphia teamed up in February with "perverted-iustice.com" volunteers.

For TV, it's an effective way to call attention to an apparently widespread problem. Typically, a dozen or more men will show up at the door of the stakeout house in just four days of work. Some of the individuals who show up are prominent or related to prominent people, which makes their presence particularly newsworthy.

The motto of the Web site is "Exposing wannabe perverts on the Net." Its methods are surprisingly simple. A volunteer establishes an online profile as an underage female or male (e.g., "south-citygrrl," a 14-year-old girl). He, or she, signs in to a regional chat room at a popular site like AOL or Yahoo - and waits.

Why regional chat rooms? Because they "are the most ready and easy way for an individual to try to 'hook up with' underage females," the Web site's Fequently Asked Questions states. Every one of the hundreds of chatters allegedly "exposed" by the Web site has been an adult male.

It's not a "bust" until the alleged "predator" gives out his phone number and agrees to meet his mark for sex. Then the Web-based group takes an extra step: "Before anyone is posted on the site, they are chatted up by one of our underage-sounding phone verification specialists in order to confirm the number."

Usually, the target has sent a Wcbcam picture of himself, too. The site posts that picture, the full chat transcript, the offender's online handle and his verified phone number. Afterward, the target is offered a "right of reply," which is also posted to perverted-justice.com.

While some journalists have wondered if this constitutes "entrapment," FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza told me in February that whatever his distaste for such stings, they aren't entrapment. That, he explained, is a legal term applying only in criminal cases. No one was being charged with a crime here.

Although site volunteers never solicit strangers online, they did make inquiries to local TV stations beginning in late 2003 about doing so. For instance, in Kansas City, all four stations received offers from perverted-justice.com to team up on stings. One station, KCTV, followed up; the other three ran news reports examining perverted-justice's methods, with quotes from the FBI's Lanza, who was critical of the site.

The people behind the site recognized that their method of obtaining footage of individuals responding to e-mails from alleged underage children was tailor made for television. It now has a section of the site reserved for "group media busts." Unlike a conventional "bust," in which an individual is arrested by the police, this one results in a face-to-face encounter - between someone lured to a house and a TV reporter.

The site's Webmaster, whose online identity is "Xavier Von Erck," has been interviewed on camera by both CNN 's "Paula Zahn Now" and the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather." (Both outlets identified him on screen as if Xavier Von Erck were his real name, which it's not.)

As the Web site's profile has risen, so has the volume of complaints about its methods. Police and agencies for missing and exploited children note that very few of the men "busted" at the site have ever been brought to justice (about a dozen arrests out of more than 600 names posted).

The favorite phrase of FBI spokesman Lanza when referring to the Web site is "vigilante justice." Lanza also points out that men shown on the Web site can change identities, relocate, or otherwise avoid accountability for their actions.

Besides its anonymous and idiosyncratic public face, perverted-justice.com presents other concerns for TV stations.

The site's practice of posting personal information about the targeted men it shows, including phone numbers and city of residence, opens them up for online and telephone harassment. The FAQ file disavows any such intent: "We are about public exposure, not violence or harassment." But concerns remain about such conduct.

"You're moving from an observer of fact and recorder of history into someone who's creating history," says Charles Davis, Freedom of Information Center director at the Missouri School of Journalism. "I wouldn't argue with [the merits of the story] at all. But they do that kind of journalism at their own risk."