NBC Dateline Settles Catch A Predator Suit & Stops Production Very Quietly Last December

I did not even realize that they did, but it was starting to be a real problem for the news division that To Catch a Predator might not have been a good idea for so many reasons.

The big reason it wasn't a good idea in my opinion? The entrapment issues. And despite the fact that everyone thought it was a good idea to be publicly flogging potential child sexual abuse criminals in public, the way they did it was getting to be a serious legal issue for the network.

So, I didn't even realize it until I read this LA Times story five minutes ago that Chris Hansen and crew had stopped producing segments. Maybe that's because they keep airing on MSNBC from time to time, not that I watch.

And the other thing ...

NBC Universal has “amicably resolved” a $105-million lawsuit filed by a woman whose brother committed suicide during a taping of its controversial “Dateline NBC” series “To Catch a Predator,” both parties said today.

Bruce Baron, an attorney for Patricia Conradt, told The Times in an interview today that “the matter has been amicably resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.”

Conradt’s brother, Louis William Conradt Jr., a 56-year-old assistant county prosecutor in a Dallas suburb, shot himself in November 2006 when officers showed up at his house as part of a pedophilia sting arranged by “Dateline.”

Patricia Conradt sued NBC last July, claiming that the network interfered with police duties and then failed to protect her brother's safety.

Once again, I am certainly not an advocate for child sexual abuse, I advocate against it every chance I get. However I'm also an advocate for the rule of law, and that I believe was being compromised.

So don't send your letters.