Welcome to Explain the Internet, where we break down the noise on the World Wide Web with the help of experts.
asserted
we → welcome → experts
Why don't you take a seat right over there?
asserted
you → take → seat
It's a question asked by journalist Chris Hansen of dozens of men caught with their metaphorical, and in some cases literal, pants down by the news reality show To Catch a Predator.
asserted
It → ask → Predator
Running from 2004 to 2007, the hidden camera show became such a cultural touchstone that it was parodied in the cold open of the 2006 Emmys, with Conan O'Brien playing the part of a distressed accused sexual predator confronted by Hansen in a rented house masquerading as a family home.
asserted
it → run → home
A ratings juggernaut for US network NBC, the show ended following a high-profile suicide after one of the program's sting operations.
asserted
show → end → operations
Almost 20 years later, the program and its host are being put under the microscope by documentarian Lance Oppenheim in his directorial narrative debut, Primetime.
asserted
program → put → debut
The 30-year-old, whose next project is the highly anticipated Nathen Fielder/Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything, grew up watching To Catch a Predator.
"
asserted
To → anticipate → Predator
I'd never seen anything before that had mixed truth and fiction in the way the show had.
asserted
show → see → way
Hiring adult actors pretending to be children … these houses that would be turned into sets," Oppenheim tells ABC News.
asserted
Oppenheim → hire → News
"All of this artifice would collide with the very real high stakes situation of getting an attempted child predator into the house.
asserted
All → collide → house
"There was something so odd about the mixture of real-life horror with this sort of surrealist absurdity that came from Hansen.
asserted
that → be → Hansen
"
What is To Catch a Predator?
asserted
Catch → catch → Predator
To Catch a Predator premiered in 2004, originally as a part of NBC's Dateline news program.
asserted
Catch → catch → program
A typical segment would include production working with private investigation organisation Perverted-Justice whose volunteer decoys would pose as children to chat with potential predators.
asserted
decoys → include → predators
The decoys would then invite them to a house leased by production with the promise of meeting and sexual activity.
asserted
decoys → invite → meeting
After being initially greeted by hired actors playing tweens, Hansen would emerge, questioning the men and revealing the hidden cameras.
asserted
Hansen → greet → cameras
The men would then be allowed to leave, only to be arrested by local law enforcement.
asserted
men → allow → enforcement
All of which was recorded and broadcast.
asserted
All → record → which
To Catch a Predator soon outgrew Dateline, with episodes featuring the segment attracting 13 per cent more audience than those without.
asserted
episodes → catch → those
By 2006, the show was moved to its own prime time slot on US television, directly competing with ratings juggernaut Lost.
asserted
show → move → Lost
This is also around the time To Catch a Predator brought law enforcement officers into the co-ordination of the stings.
asserted
To → catch → stings
Men caught by the program included firefighters, teachers, religious and government workers.
asserted
Men → catch → firefighters
In 2006, a To Catch a Predator sting in Murphy, Texas netted 25 arrests from men arriving at their decoy house.
asserted
sting → catch → house
Perverted-Justice volunteers had one more man marked, soon revealed to be local assistant district attorney Louis William "Bill" Conradt.
asserted
man → have → ?
Production was unable to lure Conradt to their Murphy house, so in coordination with local law enforcement, the decision was made to confront Conradt at his home.
asserted
decision → lure → home
After a multi-hour sting, local police sent in a SWAT team to arrest Conradt, who killed himself.
asserted
who → send → himself
Following the incident, legal issues were found with all arrests made in Murphy, including insufficient evidence and lack of active warrants.
asserted
issues → follow → warrants
In June 2007, a Texas district attorney refused to prosecute any of the 24 men arrested in the sting.
asserted
attorney → refuse → sting
A month later Conradt's sister brought a $US109 million wrongful death lawsuit against NBC Universal.
asserted
sister → bring → Universal
Although the network initially announced to be fighting the claims, in June 2008 the suit was "amicably resolved" with an undisclosed settlement amount.
uncertain
suit → announce → amount
Primetime chronicles the period of time leading up to Conradt's death, loosely based on the 2007 Esquire article Tonight On Dateline, This Man Will Die.
asserted
Man → chronicle → Dateline
Some characters, like Robert Pattinson's Chris Hansen and Perverted-Justice founder Xavier Von Erck (Matthew Maher) are based on real people.
asserted
characters → pervert → people
Some, like Merritt Wever's stern producer and Skyler Gisondo's starry eyed "Decoy Dan" are an amalgamation of several real people involved in the story.
asserted
Some → involve → story
And some like Jeff Zucker, the former NBC Universal CEO who moved To Catch a Predator into its prime time slot to compete with Lost, simply play themselves.
asserted
who → move → themselves
"I liked this idea of being able to mix truth and fiction in a way that almost was an homage to the show and the way the show created almost this reality-distortion field," Oppenheim says.
asserted
Oppenheim → like → field
"When people would enter it, they would no longer be a part of the world we all exist in.
asserted
we → enter → world
Oppenheim paid particular care to the characters playing "predators": young men; older men; a rabbi who demands to know who gave Hansen permission to conduct the sting; a man with cerebral palsy.
asserted
who → pay → palsy
"It was interesting to present the predators in a similar way to how Chris Hansen would experience it, to how his crew would experience it," Oppenheim says.
"The attempt to sort of deny any form of humanity to these people and see them as almost a form, a token of entertainment.
asserted
Oppenheim → present → entertainment
They almost became commercial objects in this sort of space race against Lost.
asserted
They → become → Lost
How to keep children safe
Hansen has condemned Primetime as "detached from reality", going so far as to buy ad space before US screenings to promote his streaming service TruBlu, where he still conducts predator investigations.
asserted
he → keep → investigations
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia