“i like To Catch A Predator, and i watch every episode i can”?

sure its a fucked up show hosted by a complete tool with a fake voice and a tired approach with obviously much older “actors” than the teens (and pre-teens) that they allege to be in the chatrooms – but its great television and thats all it really needs to be.

and it embarrasses and publicly ridicules and arrests some of the worst and most disgusting criminals in america: child molesters

therefore any criticism about the show, if you ask me, is usually rooted in several layers of bullshit. so what if some of the alleged kill themselves? so what if some of the actual arrests involve elements of entrapment – you are guilty of a crime simply for driving to the house after arranging for sex with a minor via the net, so who cares if they put the WORST BLONDE WIG ON AN 18 YEAR OLD GIRL who is pretending to be 12 to get the pervs ass into the suburban house filled with cops and cameras?

as creepy as the show is, who the fuck cares that some of the asswipes get off the hook due to legal loopholes when millions of people, some of whom might be sex offenders or would-be sex offenders, are educated in the fact that the child that theyre IMing might just be a cop, or worse, a highly rated tv show bent on exposing them on national broadcast television?

yesterday LAist scored an interview with one of the young ladies who poses as an 11 year old. she explained that she appears on the web cam to the alleged pervs while a team of people chats with the suspect (how the dude cant see her hands match the words on the screen is baffling, but whatevs). she disclosed that the crew cracks jokes during the days that theyre taping and catching the criminals. and she explained that shes an actress who has a record deal.

last night the interview made its way to Metafilter, and got hammered. because The Blue can tend to veer off into hipster righteousness, from time to time, of course noone had the nads to admit that they like the show, and some of them pretended like they had never ever seen the show (though they didnt resort to the old claim of “i dont even OWN a tv, humph!”)

however this was the best comment by one of the MeFiers who found a bit of contradiction in the actress’s innerview.

How do you feel like some people have criticized the show regarding entrapment?
It makes me really mad because I know that perverted justice does a really, really good job of making sure they’re not trying to seduce anybody.We just sit in a chat room, we say 11, female, Long Beach, California and then see who pops up so when people accuse them of seducing these guys, it annoys me because I know it’s not true.

Were there times when it seemed like the pedophile was going to just leave and then it was you that kept them there?
Yea. There was one guy in particular I had to stand outside with for 40 minutes and talk him into walking into the house.

Um……..

basically i think anything that gets child molesters off the street – and off the web – for even a little while, is fine with me, especially if it’s tv reality shows. speaking of… when do the new episodes air?