• Newsletters
  • Become a member
  • CITY LIFE
    • Agenda: Things to do
    • Out Here
    • Shop Local
    • Street View
    • The Sound Issue
    • Best of Chicago: City Life
    • Best of Chicago: Buy Local
    • Best of Chicago: Cannabis
    • Best of Chicago: Sports & Recreation
  • NEWS & POLITICS
    • News
    • Features
    • En español
    • Podcasts
      • The Ben Joravsky Show
      • Chicago Queer & Now
  • COLUMNS & OPINION
    • Anthony Ehlers: On Prisons
    • John Greenfield: On Transportation
    • Deanna Isaacs: On Culture
    • Ben Joravsky: On Politics
    • The Ben Joravsky Show
    • Dan Savage: Savage Love
    • Opinion
  • MUSIC
    • Music Features
    • Chicagoans of Note
    • Gossip Wolf
    • The Listener
    • The Secret History of Chicago Music
    • Music Reviews
    • Concert Previews
    • Early Warnings
    • Music listings community calendar
    • The Sound Issue
    • Best of Chicago: Music & Nightlife
    • Chicago in Tune guide
    • Bull Horn (paid sponsored content)
  • ARTS & CULTURE
    • Summer Theater & Arts Preview
    • Features
    • Theater
    • Dance
    • Visual arts
    • Book reviews
    • Ghost Light by Kerry Reid
    • The Sound Issue
    • Best of Chicago: Arts & Culture
    • Arts listings community calendar
  • FILM
    • Features
    • Reviews
    • Small Screen
    • Archives
  • FOOD & DRINK
    • The Food Issue
    • Features
    • Reviews
    • Monday Night Foodball
    • Best of Chicago: Food & Drink
    • The Drinks Issue (2021)
    • Sommelier Series (paid sponsored content)
  • READER
    • About
      • Contact
      • Staff
      • Careers
    • Newsletters
    • Find a print copy
      • Distribution map and information
      • Print subscriptions
    • Advertise
    • Donate
    • Become a member
    • Contests
    • Reader Store
    • Classifieds
      • Matches
    • Nonprofit Guide
    • Reader 50
    • Best of Chicago
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
Skip to content
Chicago Reader

Chicago Reader

Chicago’s alternative nonprofit newsroom

Become a member
  • »
  • Latest issue
  • We’re hiring!
  • Summer Theater & Arts
  • En español
  • Reader 50
  • Nonprofit Guide
  • Contests
  • Reader Store
  • Advertise
Home » Were NBC’s ethics perverted?
Posted inBlogs

Were NBC’s ethics perverted?

by Michael Miner May 30, 2007August 19, 2021

Share this:

Indignation is the table wine of journalism. It goes with everything, and the cheaper the meal the more of it you swig. NBC hits the indignation hard in its evening news show Dateline, which for the last three years has teamed up with a citizens’ group called Perverted Justice to produce the feature known as “To Catch a Predator.”  NBC boasts that Dateline has “exposed over 200 potential child predators in its stings,” and host Chris Hansen, in addition to running a blog that offers an “inside look” at his creep-nabbing, has written a book, To Catch a Predator.

Did you know? The Reader is nonprofit. The Reader is member supported. You can help keep the Reader free for everyone—and get exclusive rewards—when you become a member. The Reader Revolution membership program is a sustainable way for you to support local, independent media.

Become a member
Donate

But has NBC itself climbed into bed with the wrong company–Perverted Justice and its mysterious leader, who goes by the nom de guerre Xavier von Erck? Here’s a commentary that thinks so. And here’s a lawsuit that thinks so too. It was filed May 24 in federal court in Chicago by Marsha Bartel, a veteran NBC producer who was assigned to the Dateline series last August. Bartel says in her suit that she was fired in December because she insisted that NBC obey its own ethics policy, but the network “was more interested in sensationalizing and dramatizing the Predator series for profit than news reporting.” According to the suit, Bartel once expressed her concerns about von Erck to her executive producer, who replied, “We all know they’re nuts.”

Bartel alleges that NBC “unethically pays Perverted Justice to troll for and lure targets into its sting, thereby giving it a financial incentive to lie to and trick targets of its sting.” She alleges that Perverted Justice refused to identify the 50-some volunteers working for Dateline or to provide her with transcripts of online and telephone conversations that might have assured her no entrapment was going on. She also alleges that NBC entered into an “unwritten quid pro quo” with local law enforcement officials, giving them video equipment that could be used to make cases against the suspects and getting in return “dramatically staged arrest scenarios and video taped police interrogations to capture audience attention, increase ratings and ultimately revenues for NBC.”  

Singling out Hansen, Bartel says he “knowingly and falsely claimed ‘at any given time, 50,000 predators were on the Internet prowling for children’ even though a transcript of a video taped interview with his source, a former FBI agent, contradicted Hansen’s claim.” 

Thanks to radaronline.com for spotting the lawsuit. 

Tagged: Chris Hansen, Dateline, Marsha Bartel, Perverted Justice, To Catch a Predator, Vol. 36 No. 35, Xavier von Erck

Get our free daily newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday. Dive into our most recent stories and exclusive insights from our editors and staff.

Latest Stories

Film

Let the Little Light Shine

by Dmitry Samarov
Film

Girl Picture

by Kathleen Sachs
Film

Bullet Train

by Adam Mullins-Khatib
Film

Bodies Bodies Bodies

by Noah Berlatsky
Arts & Culture

Remembering Myrna Salazar 1947-2022

The cofounder of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance fostered a vibrant community of Latinx artists locally and beyond.
by Kerry Reid

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS

Best of Chicago 2021

About the Chicago Reader
Reader Staff
Reader Careers
Freelance Information
Contact Us
Become a member
Donate

Advertise

Submit/promote your event

Find the Paper
Subscribe
Shop the Reader Store
Contests/Giveaways/Promotions

Reader Classifieds

Reader Matches

Chicago Reader Nonprofit Guide

Get our free newsletters

Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

© 2022 Chicago Reader. Proudly powered by Newspack by Automattic