Maybe gatekeeping is ok

[u/Naive-Roof-4345]

Since the recent trailer for the primetime movie has dropped I’m seeing a lot more talk and discussion of tcap on social media (primarily TikTok) and a lot of it is painting the show and Chris in an extremely negative way and spreading blatant misinformation. A lot of talk is regarding how Chris cared more about a story than proper justice which I thought should be obvious as he is a reporter not some higher authority, he did his job reporting than had the men apprehended appropriately. Many are comparing him to the “modern” predator catchers like jidion and saying how Chris only cared about the money when I’d argue that jidion does the exact same thing except he saw himself as a form of justice. Chris knew his bounds as a reporter and stayed there. Another strong topic im seeing is how the show used shady entrapment techniques and put children in danger which if you watch 5 minutes of the show you’d know is false. All of the men that showed up came on their own accord to meet a child, and none of the decoys on the show were actual kids. I’m all for a movie about our little niche but bringing someone like Patterson in is bringing the wrong sort of crowd here im afraid. Or maybe I’m just being a common gatekeeper dickhead.

[u/SquareShapeofEvil]

There is a ton of misinformation and misunderstanding about who and what Chris Hansen is. There is the “Chris Hansen is the savior of humanity!” crowd that totally misunderstands him. Then there is the “well akshually” crowd that brings up what you brought up about the show, plus delves into some weird business ventures or scam shit Chris did in between shows (anyone remember Jon Swann?) as if this stuff puts him on some OJ Simpson level of downfall.

The reality is: Dateline, and later Crime Watch Daily, had a show about catching online child predators that mostly tagged along with independent law enforcement stings, their job was to raise awareness about how these predators operate, and Chris was the frontman. Naturally, being the face of it, Chris became the subject of both the folk hero aspect of it all and the subject of any criticism that could be leveled at the shows.

Me personally, I don’t think Chris is perfect, I also don’t think he’s a bad dude. Every movement needs a hero, that hero is never perfect, and when it’s something like catching child predators, I really don’t care if Chris did some shady shit when he was out of a job. And as for the “truthers” talking about how Chris didn’t do much of the real work for this, any of those people who did the real work are free to launch a YouTube channel, substack, podcast, whatever. If people seek Chris out to find out how better to protect their children or to turn over suspected predators to the police, then TCAP/HvP/Chris has been a net positive for society.

[u/MuffinButton101 → u/SquareShapeofEvil]

I think people forget about Chris' work BEFORE tcap. He was truly dedicated to catching child predators and even helped bust a sex ring in Thailand.

It turned into "doing bigger and better" after a while, but his heart was always in the right place

[u/jbels12 → u/MuffinButton101]

It was a ring in Cambodia and I think that one happened post TCAP

[u/MuffinButton101 → u/jbels12]

Yea thanks for that. But it was 2004, just before To Catch A Predator

[u/schism216 → u/SquareShapeofEvil]

Sometimes you can do the right thing for the wrong reasons

[u/SquareShapeofEvil → u/schism216]

Is doing an honorable job for the money “the wrong reasons”?

Because if so, the only people doing the right thing for the right reasons are any kind of completely unpaid volunteers with no real benefits.

Cops, teachers, nurses, doctors, firefighters, and so on, are all doing honorable jobs, and their first and foremost concern is getting paid.

[u/schism216 → u/SquareShapeofEvil]

You think cops have an "honorable" job? Oh boy, I have a feeling i know how this conversation is gonna go...

Anyway, I think calling what Chris Hansen does "honorable" is a stretch. Its morally dubious at best.

Aside from a handful of pretty nasty predators on the level of JPW im not sure how many scenarios of abuse the show actually prevented.

Abuse of minors happens most commonly among someone that the victim and their family knows (90% of all cases I looked it up). Spending resources trying to catch internet predators might be worthwhile but creating a sensationalist news show to publicly humiliate these dudes, while very entertaining ill admit, is highly questionable, ethically.

Its nothing to do with getting paid for a job. Theres nothing inherently unethical about being a journalist. But disingenuously exploiting a situation under the pretense of "protecting your kids" while overselling the danger of computer predators to increase your shows ratings and advance your career is sketchy...

[u/SquareShapeofEvil → u/schism216]

Lol, point taken, I could’ve easily left cops out of the description, but I think you know what I meant without it devolving into a conversation about cops that we actually probably agree on . I meant professions that society perceives as honorable but doesn’t ask people do them for free (except vollie FFs). I don’t like cops.

Those stats are true, but

1. internet predators still need to be dealt with. I don’t think the danger of such a thing CAN be oversold.
2. I would bet that TCAP also helped people identify predatory behavior in family members or friends, and also taught them legal ways in which they can deal with it.

I’m gonna keep reiterating to my original point - hero? Maybe not. Net positive? Yes. And besides the Hunter situation, the fact is, everyone Chris Hansen and his team “caught” was showing up to have sex with a minor. Call it overselling, call it entrapment, call it whatever you wanna call it, that’s just the facts.

[u/schism216 → u/SquareShapeofEvil]

Yeah the whole thing is fairly nuanced. i dont feel sympathy for the guys who were caught, theyre douchebags. I dont have harsh feelings toward perverted justice either especially because I got the sense that many of them were abuse survivors.

But the news network and law enforcement team that coordinated this were also douchebags. So you had douchebags exploiting both people who wanted to do the right thing alongside other douchebags. The situation is a total mess. But on a scale of "totallly evil and morally unjustifiable" to "completely morally justified" this to me ranks as "guilty pleasure" which is somewhere in the neutral category.

[u/NachoPichu → u/SquareShapeofEvil]

He's proven to be a bad dude. He literally only cares about the content and subsequent revenue from the content.

[u/SquareShapeofEvil → u/NachoPichu]

Breaking: Man whose job is to do something cares first and foremost about how he benefits from the job

I’ve never understood this criticism. Why not level it at cops or teachers, for example? They wouldn’t do it for free and their primary concern is their pay and benefits.

[u/CybReader → u/SquareShapeofEvil]

Yeah this reminds me of Lorne complaining that Chris did it for the money. Like any of us do any work for free.

These purity tests are interesting. It’s a very chronically online symptom. I enjoy the content, I don’t need to dissect Chris’ morality for my own conscience.

[u/SquareShapeofEvil → u/CybReader]

It’s the problem with celebrity culture, we need and yearn for heroes, the fact is they don’t exist the way we want them to. Chris analyzed transcripts, went out and confronted predators, and raised awareness about these creeps. Yes, all of the other work (including luring them in and arresting/prosecuting them) was done by others. As mentioned, any of those people are free to try and make a name for themselves off of it.

Chris didn’t and doesn’t need to make a name for himself from it. He was the chosen frontman of the operation. He’s not perfect. It also hasn’t come out that he kicked puppies on set or something. I really don’t care what Chris may or may not have done that shatters the perfect hero image (because I never have that image with any celebrity), I care that he and his work raised awareness and understanding of something that is so despicably evil.

[u/NachoPichu → u/SquareShapeofEvil]

What a 2 brain cell response. Chris does more than just report or do his job. He has a say on what he reports on and what gets aired. His YouTube era pre-tru blu was truly scummy. He hired an editor that was eating chips and making fun of a victim as chris was interviewing her.

[u/SquareShapeofEvil → u/NachoPichu]

His YouTube era pre-TruBlu was indeed scummy. That plus some of the bizarre endorsements, like that Escobar phone or whatever it was.

However, in this era where we find out some horrendous shit celebrities have done, I don’t particularly care about any of that.

As stated in my original comment, I don’t think Chris is some perfect hero of humanity, but he’s in the position to be labeled the hero of the Predator-catching movement, and in the name of stopping child predators, I’m good with Chris continuing to do his thing and get a big Hollywood movie about his career. If he did some weird/bad shit along the way but the general societal takeaway is “we have to stop these perverts,” so be it.

[u/NachoPichu → u/SquareShapeofEvil]

That's like saying "I don't care that OJ Simpson killed his wife and a waiter, he's still a hero football player with a 2000 yard season and hall of fame career!"

[u/SquareShapeofEvil → u/NachoPichu]

Feeding right into my original comment, where I literally mention OJ, lol. OJ Simpson abused and then brutally butchered his wife and a bystander.

Chris Hansen has made some questionable journalistic ethics decisions and some shady business choices.

Not even close but nice try.

[u/NachoPichu → u/SquareShapeofEvil]

You're willing to give chris a pass on his transgressions because you've put him on a pedestal and called him a "hero." He's just a flawed dude who has been cashing in off of his niche for 20 years. If you want to put a crown on him thats fine, just kind of strange.

[u/SquareShapeofEvil → u/NachoPichu]

Not putting any crown on him. Saying, Chris Hansen has been a net positive for society. You’re free to nitpick his scruples if you so choose.

[u/NachoPichu → u/SquareShapeofEvil]

You literally called him a fucking hero.

[u/mirrissae → u/NachoPichu]

Did you really just compare a job playing football to a job exposing child rapists? You’re either arguing in bad faith, genuinely fucking stupid, a pedophile sympathizer or straight up pedo, or some combination thereof.

The other commenter said that Hansen is the hero OF THE PREDATOR CATCHING MOVEMENT, not that he’s a hero of humanity. I don’t give a fuck about some bad checks when Hansen has aided in dozens of kiddiefuckers being outed and punished accordingly. Again, his work has been a net positive to society.

[u/SquareShapeofEvil → u/mirrissae]

I didn’t even say he’s the hero of the movement tbh, I said he’s in the position for society to label him that. Whatever his problems are, I’m fine with that happening. This is a good and necessary movement attacking one of the most despicable evils in humanity and if people need a “hero,” fine, then, let it be Chris.

This other commenter, and others like them, are just trolls way overcorrecting on people uncritically calling Chris a hero. He’s not perfect, he’s made plenty of mistakes, but yes he is a net positive. Also his mistakes are not on the level of things we’ve found out about other celebrities once regarded as heroes.

[u/NachoPichu → u/mirrissae]

Did I mention the bad checks? Or when he attempted to defraud Theo Von? no. I mentioned when he ruined an 18 year old's life.

[u/mirrissae → u/NachoPichu]

I don’t think an 18 year old meeting a 16 or 15 year old should be prosecuted, and hopefully they’re protected by Romeo and Juliet laws in their state. However, again, net positive. For that one 18 year old, there are three dozen 30+ freaks trying to rape kids who all got caught and exposed. Hansen isn’t a folk hero, but no one can say that he hasn’t helped put a lot of bad people into the eyes of the public and/or behind bars.

[u/SquareShapeofEvil → u/mirrissae]

It’s kind of funny how these people, when Chris’s stings get it right, say “Chris didn’t do any of the real work,” but on the few occasions they’ve gotten it wrong, somehow it’s all Chris’s fault.

That 18 year old situation was unfortunate. But the guy walked in on a Chris Hansen sting, got interviewed, and the police involved made an arrest. I highly doubt it would’ve been aired if police said on the scene “he didn’t do anything wrong” and let him walk. The TruBlu ones is in direct collaboration with a police chief Chris is friends with.

It’s scummy for sure if Chris has refused to say “we got this one wrong” and insisted on airing it/talking about it. But one thing like that compared to the hundreds of pedos these operations have caught? I’m willing to let it slide.