NBC FEELING THE “STING”
Low ratings equal big payoffs to advertisers....but will it be enough to keep them from jumping ship?
February 15, 2008 As NBC slips into the fourth ranking broadcast spot they have quietly begun reimbursing advertisers an average of $500,000 each for failing to reach guaranteed ratings levels, this is the first time a network has taken such a step in years, media buyers said. NBC boss Jeff Zucker is also expected to make big cuts on the newsgathering and operational side of the company's news division, including eliminating an entire level of MSNBC's management team, in a bid to save between $20 million and $40 million, according to the Huffington Post.
Insiders say it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving network. Just ask Marsha Bartel. Marsha Bartel's 21 year long career ended with NBC six months after her August 2006 appointment as "sole producer" of "To Catch a Predator," which conducts sting operations targeting men seeking illicit liaisons with children they've met online.
Bartel claims that many of the program's ethical lapses stem from its relationship with Perverted Justice, a shadowy vigilante group that the show uses to "troll for and lure targets into its sting."
According to Bartel, by paying Perverted Justice, NBC has given the group a "financial incentive to lie to trick targets of its sting." The identities of the group's 50-plus volunteers were kept secret from her, Bartel says, adding that Perverted Justice does not provide "complete transcripts from its trolling operations," so network officials "cannot independently verify the accuracy" of the group's transcripts.
In some instances, Bartel claims, sting targets are "led into additional acts of humiliation (such as being encouraged to remove their clothes) in order to enhance the comedic effect of the public exposure of these persons." Bartel also claims that NBC has unethically covered up the fact that law enforcement officials have acted improperly while working in conjunction with the "To Catch a Predator" crew, such as "goofing off by waving rubber chickens in the faces of sting targets while forcing them to the ground and handcuffing them."
Bartel says that when she "raised concerns" about controversial comments made by Perverted Justice's founder Xavier Von Erck, David Corvo, executive producer of the newsmagazine "Dateline," responded, "We all know they're nuts." Still, Corvo later commented that NBC News is proud of its reporting. Source:http://www.chatmag.com/news/Bartelcomplaint.pdf
Residents in the communities where the NBC Dateline “stings” are carried out however are growing increasingly upset over the show’s tactics. For starters, residents of the neighborhood where the “sting houses” are set up aren’t notified or warned that Dateline is luring men expecting to have sex with minors they met online are being brought into their community. Many voice concern over the fact that eventually one of their targets might be carrying a weapon which could put them and their children in danger once the “target” is cornered.
Adding to the growing concern over the shows tactics, hundreds of “would be” predators have walked away free from the stings unprosecuted due to faulty warrants and improper collection of evidence which was deemed inadmissible in court. Yet NBC continues to stage more stings and rebukes anyone who questions their tactics.
To date, NBC has paid out over $1 million to Perverted Justice for their voyeuristic reality show which might have a more fitting title of “To Catch and Release A Predator”.
In Murphy Texas, Dateline even went so far as to go to the home of William Conradt Jr. who failed to show up at the sting house which leave many questioning whether he ever had any intention at all of meeting a minor. When Conradt was cornered in his own home he shot himself in the head and later died.
NBC shows little or no remorse for what happened in Murphy Texas even though several police officers involved in the sting felt so horrible over their participation in the sting that they later quit and spoke out against the improprieties of Perverted Justice, the Police and the shows host Chris Hansen. The death of William Conradt Jr. has sparked a multi-million dollar wrongful death lawsuit against NBC. That case is still pending.
RELATED: NBC has stopped running promotional commercials that parodied the new ''I can'' campaign from Nike Inc. after executives at Nike, which advertises on the network, asked NBC to withdraw the spots.
A partial list of advertisers currently doing business with the deeply troubled NBC are as follows:
SAMSONITE,GENERAL MILLS, INVACARE, BLACK & DECKER, ALLSTATE, COLDWELL BANKER, JAGUAR, AMERICAN AIRLINES, EMBASSY SUITES, MCI WORLDCOM, CAMPBELL’S, IBM, USA TODAY, CLEARSPRING, FULL TILT POKER, MICROSOFT
