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‘To Catch a Predator’ Became a Ratings Sensation By Exposing Internet Sex Predators. A New Sundance Documentary Examines Its Complicated Legacy
'To Catch a Predator' was a sensation in the early aughts, kicking off a wave of true crime shows. A new Sundance documentary examines its legacy.
Like many Americans in the early aughts, documentary filmmaker David Osit watched “ To Catch a Predator,” a hidden camera reality TV show that followed journalist Chris Hansen working in coordination with law enforcement while conducting sting operations that exposed adult men who were hoping to have sex with minors. But he never really gave the NBC series much thought until years later when he came across an article about Bill Conradt, a Texas assistant district attorney who committed suicide in 2007 after police served him with a warrant stemming from one of Hansen’s online investigations into potential pedophiles. He just thinks that “To Catch a Predator,” which often had Hansen rolling into frame and asking the men he’s just exposed as pedophiles what drives them to act on these horrific impulses, isn’t really interested in answering that question.
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