Ethics Case Study – Murphy, Texas MSNBC’s Dateline: To Catch a Predator By Jackie Barnes - UFID: 8181-3190 Murphy, Texas is a small town on the outskirts of Dallas with a population of roughly 3,000 people but despite its small size, it has made headlines all over the media for its cooperation with MSNBC’s Dateline: To Catch a Predator and the subsequent suicide of local District Attorney, Louis Conradt after he was discovered to have been posing as a 19-year-old boy and having sexually explicit conversations with a decoy from watch-dog group, Perverted-Justice. The show has been under harsh criticism since November 2006, when Conradt committed suicide. Dateline’s journalistic practices have been called into question, as well as their involvement with the vigilante group ‘Perverted-Justice,’ and their influence on and involvement of the Murpy Police. On the surface, the intentions of Dateline to expose predators seem innocent enough and are even appreciated by many citizens of Murphy. However, the real and deep-seeded motives of the program are beginning to surface as the result of this specific investigation in Murphy, Texas. Are the motives of Dateline, to bring predators to justice, really that altruistic or are the pointed interview questions, hidden cameras, and gun-drawn police about enhancing production value and boosting ratings? If so, is it ethical to expose then men without their knowing, and as the sister of Louis Conradt says, “…act as judge, jury and executioner”. Have they exceeded the boundaries of journalism into law enforcement? These questions are now forcing not just the public, but the courts to analyze Dateline’s motives and if the production crew crossed any ethical or legal boundaries during their many investigations. In an effort to better understand and desipher this very perplexing legal and ethical matter, it is necessary to employ the Model of Moral Reasoning to help define and analyze the situation, the values and principles that are at play, any external factors, and the moral duties of each party involved (Day, 61) By analyzing each step, a rational conclusion can then be made about the motives of Dateline and their hand in the death of Louis Conradt. Defining and Analyzing the Situation The investigative news program, Dateline: To Catch a Predator is meant to spotlight internet child predators in various parts of the country. The production team of Dateline works with the local police and Perverted-Justice, who uses actors to pose as teenagers, to chat with online sex predators. Once a rapport is built and the under-age decoy is solicited for sex by the predator, phone contact is made in accordance with Perverted-Justice policy, and he is lured to the house unaware of the seven hidden cameras, often, with the presumption of having sexual relations with the minor (NPR, 2008). When the men arrive at the house, some are reluctant to enter, some brazenly enter completely naked, and some do not stop at the house at all. However, the ones who do enter are met with reporter, Chris Hansen, and asked about their intention for coming to the house. Most men deny that there was any sort of sexual interest or incentive for coming, although the online chat transcripts that Hansen is holding tell otherwise. In the end, all of the men who drive or stop by are met with the police and taken into custody for online solicitation of sex with a minor, a charge that could carry 10 years in prison. Dateline defends their duty of exposing these predators by claiming that it is their duty as journalists to investigate and expose the continuing problems going on in society. However, there is a fine line in exposing a story and creating or coaching one for the purpose of entertainment and this is where the crew of Dateline is being criticized for unethically collecting information and their “checkbook journalism” practices of bribing law enforcement for their participation, as all of the parties involved, except for the suspects, were paid by Dateline for their cooperation (Feuer, 2008). Ninth Investigation In its ninth To Catch a Predator investigation, Dateline went to Murphy, Texas where is set up a sting, with Murphy Police and Perverted-Justice, chatting with and catching twenty-three online child predators over a period of four days. One of the men was Kaufman County District Attorney Louis Conradt (Hansen, 2007). After identifying himself as a 19-year old boy, using a fake photo and having several explicit conversations, with someone he knew to be a teenage boy, Conradt agreed to meet the decoy at the undercover house (Hansen, 2007). However, unlike most of the other men in the investigation, Conradt did not show up. Instead, Conradt stopped chatting online, would not answer his phone, and according to the Perverted-Justice, he immediately deleted part of his Myspace profile page (Esquire, 2007). According to Chief Myrick, he feared that Conradt was beginning to cover his tracks by destroy evidence that would be needed for prosecution, which is what prompted the Murphy Police to rush to Conradt’s house. However, no one except Perverted-Justice can confirm that a portion of the page was deleted, not even Chris Hansen, who, in an interview with Esquire magazine, dabbles back and forth with this recollection of actually seeing the page, and yet this was supposed to be a key reason for obtaining the warrant (Esquire, 2007). Also, it was noted that the last login date for the profile was in August, but the investigation took place in November, meaning it would have been impossible for Conradt to have changed his profile that recently. In addition, Detective Weiss, who drafted the warrants to arrest Conradt and search his premises, was not informed of the Myspace page and is not mentioned in the drafts. So essentially, the warrants were drafted on the basis that Conradt was not answering his phone, stopped chatting online – and perhaps, because he was the district attorney for a neighboring county, a fact that any good producer knows would surely enthrall Dateline viewers. It was not until this “unique case” that Dateline had ever decided to go a suspect’s house (Esquire, 2007). NBC denies having anything to do with influencing Murray Police to obtain warrants, although two former detectives involved in the case assert that it was Chris Hansen who insisted that Conradt be confronted and arrested at home (NPR, 2008). Hansen does not deny that the crew tossed around the idea of trying to speak with Conradt if warrants were not executed, as “…it would have been [their] obligation as journalists” especially since they “had a guy who was assistant district attorney who was sworn to uphold the law, surfaced in a computer predator sex investigation” but tries to make clear that the crew is simply following the police (Esquire, 2007). In the end, a police SWAT team arrived at Louis Conradt’s house with an arrest warrant in hand and an investigating TV crew only yards away. It was then that he took his own life. It is not known for sure by anyone, if Louis Conradt knew for certain that he had been discovered by police of knew anything about Dateline, but were several 9-1-1 reports that morning of a suspicious van loitering in the neighborhood. It was the Dateline crew. As a result of Dateline’s presence in the investigation and the hand that they are believed to have played in the death of Louis Conradt, his sister and next of kin, Patricia Conradt, has subsequently filed a hefty lawsuit against NBC in the sum of $105 million (Hansen, 2007). Recently, a judge approved the suit to continue in a trail hearing citing that “a reasonable jury could find that NBC crossed the line from responsible journalism to irresponsible and reckless intrusion into law enforcement” (Feuer, 2008). Values, Principles, and Moral Duties Chris Hansen Investigative journalism is, no doubt, an important means of bringing social issues to the surface that rarely get addressed or considered. From his position as a journalist and his duty that is owed to society, it is possible to understand Dateline’s reason for bringing the issue of online child sex predators to the attention of the American audience. It is also his duty as an employee to Dateline and MSNBC to ensure that the program is of good quality, interesting, and engaging as to keep viewers tuned in. From this deontological (duty-based) perspective, the means of which building a story [the investigation] are only secondary to the ending result that is in the benefit of the greater good [the American audience is more aware of online predators and can protect their children] (Day, 61) . However, the “duty-based” actions of Chris Hansen and his crew were not enough to even achieve the ending result that Dateline supposedly set out for. Louis Conradt and the other suspects In the case of Louis Conradt and the other suspects involved in the Murphy Texas sting, all of the men featured on the program were eventually let go and all charges against them were dropped by the Collin County D.A. simply due to the fact that Perverted-Justice was not able to provide enough evident for solid conviction. The D.A. also questioned if the men were even legally arrested since the police involved did not have arrest warrants. Remember, the crime technically already took place in another county. However, this did not stop Dateline from stringing these men along, acting as judge and jury, presuming these men guilty and airing the program.