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http://newsroom.lookie.us/Newsroom-Blog/?p=233

On Friday September 7th,
ABC’s Brian Ross Goes After NBC’s Tawdry Dateline Series.

 9/08/2007 UPDATE!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SHOCKING 20/20 - BRIAN ROSS INVESTIGATION!

CLICK ON "TV STING GONE BAD PART 1" AND "TV STING GONE BAD PART 2"

Not long after attacking CBS for possible child labor law violations during the production of Kid Nation, ABC News’ 20/20 program ups the ante by going after NBC’s exploitive To Catch A Predator series. This time ABC goes with its big guns, Brian Ross’ highly acclaimed investigative unit.

In a USA Today story, Peter Johnson said that NBC questions 20/20’s motives in going after Hansen and Dateline. Everyone knows the reason is money for this is network television we’re talking about, but that doesn’t mean NBC and Chris Hansen are what they purport to be.

More to the point, is to what degree Brian Ross’ report will expose NBC’s motives in airing such an openly exploitive series that engages in misrepresentation and compromises everyone involved all the while patting themselves on the back for protecting innocent children.

Protecting innocent children is laudable, but doing so is not the responsibility of NBC, or its news division. As television insiders already know, the motive for doing such programs is financial gain, not public service. There have been lawsuits and there remain many unresolved law enforcement issues. As the issues have become more open and complex, both Dateline and Chris Hansen have come under considerable criticism by those who work in policing, civil rights, and journalism.

One of Hansen’s harshest critics up to this point has been Brian Montopoli who writes CBS’s Public Eye blog. Before joining CBS, Montopoli was a contributor to the Columbia Journalism Review. The criticism is warranted, for neither television actors nor responsible journalists have any business entrapping anyone — for doing so is police work, not entertainment and damned well not journalism.

Montopoli’s arguments are persuasive, as is his sense that Hansen’s Dateline NBC program effectively plays arresting officer, judge and jury by entrapping, accusing, and otherwise circumventing the constitutional rights of the accused. Montopoli argues that NBC ought to leave policing to constitutional authorities, and let the courts determine guilt or innocence. His point is well taken, although apparently not by NBC News president Steve Capus who sees ABC’s investigation as little more than a ratings ploy.

Our freedoms are at risk today — from a variety of threats internal and external. NBC should not be one of those threats. For it is not their role as either entertainers, or journalists, to abridge anyone’s rights — nor to mete out immediate condemnation and punishment on national television, in the phony-baloney context of exposing criminal behavior.

Brian Ross will have his hands full, and no matter what is said, NBC will come out the loser.

BOYCOTT NBC !!!!

NBC UNIVERSAL IS A WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY OF

GE CORPORATION

IS THIS REALLY A COMPANY THAT CARES ABOUT THE COMMUNITY?

The General Electric Company, or GE (NYSE: GE) is a multinational American technology and services conglomerate incorporated in the State of New York. In terms of market capitalization, GE is the world's second largest company.

GE has faced criminal action regarding its defense related operations. GE was convicted in 1990 of defrauding the U.S. Department of Defense, and again in 1992 on charges of corrupt practices in the sale of weaponry to Israel.

General Electric has a history of large-scale air and water pollution. The corporation is currently listed as the fourth-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, with more than 4.4 million pounds per year of toxic chemicals released into the air.  

General Electric has also been implicated in the creation of toxic waste. According to EPA documents, *only the United States Government and Honeywell are responsible for producing more Superfund toxic waste sites.

In 1983, New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams filed suit in Federal District Court to compel G.E. to pay for the cleanup of what was claimed to be more than 100,000 tons of chemicals dumped (legally, at the time) from their plant in Waterford.  In 1999, the company agreed to pay a $250 million settlement in connection with claims it polluted the Housatonic River and other sites with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other hazardous substances. 

In 2002, after spending millions of dollars on advertisements intended to avert the project, General Electric was ordered to clean up a 40 mile stretch of the Hudson River it had contaminated with PCBs. 

In 2003, acting on concerns that the plan proposed by GE did not "provide for adequate protection of public health and the environment," the United States Environmental Protection Agency issued a unilateral administrative order for the company to "address cleanup at the GE site" in Rome, Georgia, also contaminated with PCBs.

^{SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric  (CITATIONS INCLUDED)}