travbowman asked
At the center of Channel 5's report was a controversial televised sting operation. It lured 16 local men to a rented house in Independence, where they found not the underage sexual partners they apparently were seeking but KCTV-5 reporter Steve Chamraz and a camera crew. With the help of a Web site called, KCTV tapped into the power of undercover journalism, a genre many news organizations have sworn off because it often involves deception. Broadcast news experts interviewed this week, however, said Channel 5's strong Nielsen numbers virtually ensure that its formula will be copied by TV stations across the country. But the investigation also has raised questions of fairness, particularly its decision to publicly “out” 15 of the 16 men caught on camera. And law enforcement officials interviewed this week were skeptical that anyone shown on KCTV's reports could be prosecuted for soliciting sex with a minor. was started in 2002, according to a statement posted to the site, in order to “root out and bring to light those who would use the Internet as a way to sexually abuse children.” Those who contribute to the Web site, about two dozen unpaid volunteers, essentially take part in an elaborate role-playing game. They create the personalities of their underage characters — male and female — then hang out in Internet chat rooms and wait for strangers to strike up conversations. If a stranger proposes sex, the volunteer pretends to be receptive to the offer. Afterward, volunteers confirm the identity of the sexual predator and post it to the Web site — full name, address and phone number — along with the full transcript of the chat. Among the fictional teens propositioned in Channel 5's sting were “jessiluvsfun,” whose online profile identified her as a free-wheeling 15-year-old girl, and “fay_razorblade_kisses,” a vulnerable 14-year-old whose nickname suggest
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