Lawsuit against “Perverted Justice” Journalism
“In February, FOX 12 News’ I-Team lured pedophiles to a vacant Mount Tabor neighborhood house with chat-room promises of sex with a 13-year-old girl. When men showed up, they got a camera in the face and an uncomfortable grilling from a reporter. Patrick McCreery, the station’s assistant news director, says the ‘Perverted Justice’ segment was classic undercover journalism and ‘an important public service.’ But a single mom of three girls living next door to the house wasn’t impressed. In fact, the unnamed woman is suing KPTV and its parent company, Iowa-based Meredith Corp., for $70,000, claiming ‘the reality TV sting’ invaded her privacy and endangered her family. According to the Multnomah County lawsuit, men fleeing the cameras ran through the woman’s front yard and behind her home in the middle of the night, waking the family. The next day, after asking the news crew what they were doing, she was told only to ‘watch Fox 12 News at 10 p.m.,’ the complaint says. While the KPTV team was baiting sexual predators, the woman’s three daughters — ages 8, 13 and 15 — were home alone, the suit claims… She worries that the men who showed up at the house, none of whom were arrested, might have passed the address on to others.” — The Oregonian (US)
(Skim down to the bottom of the linked page for the story.)
It is unclear whether Perverted Justice was actually involved in this ’sting’ or whether reporters were just trying to do a PJ-style in-your-face operation. Probably PJ was not really involved, since this ’sting’ actually did something that PJ does not: it crossed the line from online to offline, from virtual to real life. Although PJ’s tactics are manipulative enough — hence the raging debate last time PervScan featured PJ — they don’t normally invite the ‘pervs’ they target to show up somewhere. They don’t bring the lambs to the slaughter.
That being said, online scare tactics can indeed have real-world consequences, and so when Perverted Justice ‘exposes’ a perv on its web site, it could well result in more than just virtual shame. It could cost somebody a job, a marriage, standing in the community, etc. It could also, as this story makes clear, inflict collateral damage. The plaintiff has a legitimate gripe here. If the address the reporters gave out online continues to be discovered by pedophiles, it may actually attract sex criminals to the single mom’s neighborhood. It may actually create more danger for nearby children — certainly the pervs exposed on the news show will be avoiding the neighborhood in the future, but what about the next pedo who stumbles on the address and doesn’t realize it was a sting? What will that creep do?
When you look at it that way, it’s hard to say the TV station did any community service with the sting — especially since they did not have the authority to arrest anyone, and especially since no one actually committed any crime.
I watched these segments on FOX12. Perverted Justice volounteers were heavily involved, from making the initial contact in chat rooms to confronting the men when they showed up (one with several forties of malt liquor) to have sex with what they thought was a teenage girl. Each one of the men said, “It’s my first time. I’ll never do it again.”
You’re right about the consequences, too. I think this whole thing could have been better-planned. All the same, it was a graphic depiction of how little it takes for a teenage girl in a chat room to get into a lot of trouble very quickly.
“Probably PJ was not really involved, since this ’sting’ actually did something that PJ does not: it crossed the line from online to offline, from virtual to real life.”
I beg to differ. There are at least 5 “media busts” orchestrated by perverted-justice.com. See below for 4 of them that I can find.
If perverted-justice doesn’t get sufficient infomercial value out of the media ratings war stunts they go ballistic.
Cash Wanted for TV sting (Eileen Laskas, News of Delaware County, Apr 14/04)
NEWTOWN TWP. – The Newtown Supervisors agreed Monday to make a demand for money that the township has spent as a result of the NBC10 March 1 pedophile sting.
ref: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11318931&BRD=1725&PAG=461&dept_id=45529&rfi=6
Residents of Delaware County, Newtown Square area please read. Make no mistake. Perverted-Justice.com was behind the NBC10 media sting. Give credit where credit is due. Here is what they think of your community…
The following quotes are from perverted-justice’s forum where they discuss media busts gone wrong.
==========
Icarus (PeeJ Contributor, Joined: 08 Oct 2003, Posts: 1626, Posts per day: [8.09], Location: St Louis MO)
Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 2:44 pm
“It looks like a case of Morons leading Morons. I’d eat curry all night and then poop on the letter and send it back.”
AngryGerman (Joined: 24 May 2002, Posts: 4625, Posts per day: [6.58], Location: Portland, Oregon)
Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 2:52 pm
“They continue to be dumb. NBC10 should fight it.”
McJen (Joined: 06 Feb 2004, Posts: 701, Posts per day: [8.87])
Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 4:04 pm
“Unfreakingbelievable. I dearly hope NBC10 does NOT cave to these blithering idiots.”
Dorotea (Joined: 07 Dec 2003, Posts: 1737, Posts per day: [12.32], Location: East Coast)
Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 6:28 pm
“Sheesh, you’d think they’d *appreciate* NBC10’s saving them the cost of hiring and training dedicated internet crime staff, not to mention identifying wanna-be’s seeking to molest local children! It kind of makes me wonder which one of the busts has connections with the Newtown Supervisors, or if one (or more) of ‘em has such inclinations. The demand doesn’t make any sense otherwise.”
Lt. Columbo (Joined: 24 Aug 2003, Posts: 1077, Posts per day: [4.4])
Posted: Fri Apr 16, 2004 10:14 pm
“Based on what I remember from the video… the townsfolk’s (seems appropriate to refer to them as simple “townsfolk”) main allegation was that NBC10 “created” news rather than “reported” news. I don’t see how that allegation can be supported, given the fact that the wannabe pedos who showed up were real people looking for real sex with what they thought were real underage girls. These predators were poised to strike real children in the neighborhood. These men were real threats who were effectively neutralized thanks to PJ and NBC10.”
patric862 (Joined: 06 Dec 2003, Posts: 1203, Posts per day: [8.53], Location: FL)
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 1:05 am
“Um, can AG countersue on behalf of NBC10 for wasting time and bandwidth?”
BeefTheTroll (Joined: 11 Aug 2003, Posts: 1173, Posts per day: [4.55])
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 1:06 am
“All of Newtown Square is welcome to line up, hit their knees, and kiss my hairy green ass. I’m so fucking tired of hearing about these sub-mongoloids and their petty, rich-asshole whining, I could piss into their water supply. Eat it, Newtown Squares. Eat it fucking RAW. I’m weary of fucking around with you.”
claymore (Joined: 21 Feb 2004, Posts: 502, Posts per day: [7.72], Location: Mount Weather)
Posted: Sun Apr 18, 2004 3:21 pm
“Heh. I would like to think that this has come about because everyone realized they didn’t have a fucking leg to stand on when it came to suing Channel 10. Remember the fucktards from N. Square who started the “Rockwood Road Blog”? Someone actually had the audacity to post a message suggesting that televised busts should be “banned”. Yeah. The cry of the statists: “There oughtta be a law!” I guess none of them remember, or care, what the First Amendment says about governmental restraints on speech, especially prior restraints. Naw. Suburbanites are willing to ignore any law concievable when it comes to preserving their insular, ostrich-like lifestyles.”
SilverSurfer (Joined: 18 Apr 2004, Posts: 6)
Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 4:25 pm
“Explain to someone who is not an insider like all of you seem to be what the issue is here. Why are all members here so irate at the City council. It is one thing to be frustrated at idiocy, it is another to ridicule it.”
Sky Monkey (PeeJ Contributor, Joined: 15 Aug 2003, Posts: 1027, Posts per day: [4.04])
Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 5:15 pm
“Idiocy, when it occurs, should be ridiculed. If we simply let idiocy continue without being ridiculed, it spreads like the plague.”
claymore (Joined: 21 Feb 2004, Posts: 502, Posts per day: [7.72], Location: Mount Weather)
Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 8:28 pm
“Idiocy exists to be ridiculed. If you don’t understand why the city council deserves every shred of ridicule that we heap on them, go back and read the many threads on the NBC10 busts. The first reaction of the Newtown Squarers was not “Holy smokes, there are pervs everywhere” but rather “Waah, waah, they brought pervs into my sacred little back yard!” Then they went out and hired expensive lawyers (trust me, I know this — I know one of the lawyers who they consulted, and while I have not discussed this case with him, I know that his firm is NOT CHEAP) who held a meeting with these folks, only to tell them there was nothing that could be done, legally. This was the same meeting where the lawyers realized at the very end that members of the media were present and tried to confiscate their notebooks and tape recorders and even their driver’s licenses. Um, yeah. So after all this squalling, the city council is asking to be paid for police time that was (A) not necessary and (B) something that is supposed to be provided as a public service in any event. Am I missing something here?”
Nephren-Ka (Joined: 01 Mar 2004, Posts: 20, Location: Pennsylvania, USA)
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 6:37 pm
“Looks like the idiots in newtown square just fucked themselves out of alot of money.”
Forum thread reference: Perverted Justice – General DiscussionÝ->ÝNBC10 Sting – Newtown Demanding Reimbursement for Costs
Originally posted on ’stinkzone’
http://www.stinkzone.com/cgi-bin/archives/000010.html
Posted by: PJ Buster at April 26, 2004 02:01 AM
==========
Dec 25/03 Milwaukee, Wisconsin – http://www.perverted-justice.com/?groupmedia=20
4 “busts”
NBC affiliate in Milwaukee
Feb 5/04 – Detroit, Michigan – http://www.perverted-justice.com/?groupmedia=21
13 “busts”
NBC affiliate in Detroit
Feb 15/04 – Kansas City, MO – http://www.perverted-justice.com/?groupmedia=22
18 “busts”
6 part series on KCTV
Rockwood Road Citizens’ Safety Group
“A place for residents of Rockwood Road to organize their response to the irresponsible and sensational journalism that brought sexual predators to our doorsteps.”
http://www.rockwoodroad.blogspot.com/
Mar, Apr /04
NBC-10
By looking at PJ’s site, they often, especially when working with media, lure men to a home for a ‘bust’.
so it looks like PJ as usual to me.
Find out who these anti-PJ “activists” really are:
http://www.corrupted-justice.net
It’s an enlightening read, to say the least.
Corrupted-Justice refers to these men as “victims”. They are NOT victims. They are men of an adult age who actively seek out young, underage CHILDREN to have sex with.
What these men do can destroy a child’s life. I think it’s only fair to return the favor once in a while.
“When you look at it that way, it’s hard to say the TV station did any community service with the sting — especially since they did not have the authority to arrest anyone, and especially since no one actually committed any crime”
Stooopid comment! Stupid, stupid stupid.
The media isn’t supposed to be arresting anyone. They were there to demonstrate how easy it is for a kid to get raped by these vile creatures.
More stupidity follows with the statement “no one actually comitted any crime”. Soliciting children (or what you think are children) for sex is a crime.
Find out ZenFerret is (MIchael Simon of Sarasota, FL) by reading http://www.spear-head.org/avso. See the lies he spews concerning anu=yone who voices an opinion against PJ and Xavier’s Merry Band of Thugs.
This band hacked into http://www.corrupted-justice.com, stealing and posting privilged emails between lawyers seeking information from CJcom, and posted them on corrupted-justice,net. The PJers aslo run the .net site and use it to defame and slander anyone who opposes PJ. The only thing PJers can come up with is attacking Matt Carpenter. So on every blog he can Michael (ZenFerret) Simon attacks Matt becuase Mr. Simon is a pathetic loser, who’s only mission in life is to mae an ass out of himself. And he has succeeded!
all pj do is tease guys into saying something sexual. and then nab them
if a 13 year old girl on msn says to me ” god i love your photo. infact i kinda like you. turns me on ” why would i be the one in the wrong if i say ” me too “
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