I Am A TV Junkie, A Blog For The Clicker Jockey

B&C Report Confirms My Suspicions -- Investigative Journalism Dying on TV

And you know what Randi Rhodes says, "If it doesn't happen on the teevee (emphasis on the first syllable) it doesn't happen in this country."

Marisa Guthrie in Broadcasting & Cable (their cover story this week):

While investigations are far from extinct, few can make the case that the scope and number of reports on network news are not but a shadow of what they once were. In the 1980s and '90s, they were the pride of news divisions and a popular primetime destination. In 1993, the last year that 60 Minutes finished the TV season atop the Nielsen ratings, ABC's Primetime Live was making its name for hidden-camera investigations. Today, the show has no dedicated time slot, and with the recent exception of Diane Sawyer's “Prostitution in America,” it hews toward crime, celebrity profiles and voyeuristic behavior labs. 48 Hours, which began in the late 1980s as a documentary program, has redefined itself as a true crime show. And NBC's Dateline has mostly pared its investigations down to a single gotcha concept such ast he controversial pedophilia sting “To Catch a Predator.”

The decline began in the 1990s when a string of high-profile legal skirmishes sent corporate counsel at the networks into a defensive posture. The actions put network news divisions on notice: If you're going to take on big businesses, keep in mind that they will defend themselves ferociously.

The other thing to keep in mind? The people who want to control the news that comes out about their companies on TV only have to buy a lot of advertising on TV to control said news. In particular, I think that we can chalk up the lack of media oversight on the pharmaceutical industry to the fact that they are the primary supporters of network and cable news.

And, in the very conspiratorial part of my brain, I think they pushed to get permission to advertise on TV just for that purpose.

This is why I get most of my investigative journalism from PBS and the BBC (through the BBC World News America broadcast and the Friday night program Newsnight, which I DVR and the rest of you should all be watching).

In particular, the kind of reporting American Greg Palast does for the BBC (this Newsnight clip after the jump, his 2007 story on African debt and vulture funds) and can't do for the US (because they won't let him do this kind of work) is what I look for on the tube.

Before I go, comments from Lowell Bergman, who works at PBS' Frontline and teaches at Cal Berkeley, from the article:

“What's really in danger is the availability of information in the public interest,” says Lowell Bergman, a veteran of CBS News and 60 Minutes. “That kind of work was never encouraged. You always had to know where the limits were. Now there isn't even a pretense of doing it.”

Bergman, who runs the investigative reporting program at the University of California at Berkeley and continues to work for Frontline, calls investigations an “anti-profit” business.

There is profit, of course. We, the audience, profit. But that's certainly not the profit that the network news divisions are considering in 2008.

Diane Sawyer's Whorehouse Odyssey, Spitzer's Kristen Already a "Girl Gone Wild"

Do you think she'll bring her husband, Mike Nichols? Will they have smart cocktails at the Bunny Ranch while browsing the "gift shop?"

My favorite line from the AP story on the episode is, "(Executive Producer David) Sloan said the special is structured so much of the racier material is confined to the second hour."

I guess that means that the second hour will be much better rated than the first.

More:

Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's call girl scandal prompted ABC News to give the go-ahead to a two-hour prime-time special on prostitution that includes Diane Sawyer's visit to a legal brothel in Nevada.

The "20/20" special, which airs 9 p.m. EDT Friday, has been in the works for two years.

ABC says that the program was scheduled long before Eliot Spitzer told us all he has spent remarkably large amounts of money on prostitutes. I'm sure it'll be mentioned, however. I don't think they're getting access to "Kristen."

Speaking of her ... and update on Ashley Alexandra Dupre and her Joe Francis connection after the jump.

Got a Problem With To Catch a Predator? Line Up Disney Style at ABC's 20/20

It seems that 20/20 is the place to go if you have a problem with Dateline's To Catch a Predator.

First, there was this issue with the former District Attorney in Murphy, TX, Louis Conradt, who committed suicide when Dateline pursued his arrest even when he didn't show up to the "bait" house.

Now there's more (AP):

After a "Dateline NBC" segment criticized a district attorney for not pursuing more than 20 child-sex cases spotlighted in one of the program's "To Catch a Predator" hidden-camera stings in suburban Dallas, he's taking his case to a rival network news show.

Collin County District Attorney John Roach declined to be interviewed for "Dateline's" Wednesday program, calling it a "hit piece." But he will appear Friday evening on ABC News' "20/20" to say that Murphy police allowed "Dateline" to take control of the sting.

You know what would be nice? If both Dateline and 20/20 would stop sniping at each other and start doing some real long form news on topics that we all care about, like the war or the attack on civil rights or even stupid teenage actresses that take naked pictures of themselves for their secret boyfriends.

But about this particular issue, if Roach doesn't think that the evidence will stand up because of the way it was collected by NBC and this Perverted Justice group, I think we should all listen to the lawyer and not the TV network. Seems to me this district attorney is doing what's right for his community.

Of course I won't be watching 20/20 tonight as it airs opposite The Soup on E!, and I'm certainly not going to miss Joel to watch this drivel.

20/20 Reports on Dateline's To Catch a Predator

And in other news, tonight on The King of Queens, Doug and Carrie watch an episode of ABC's According to Jim.

Seriously, though, from Variety:

ABC confirmed that "20/20" is working on a story about "Dateline's" visit to Murphy, Texas, where the show helped arrest more than 20 people on pedophile charges during a four-day sting eight months ago.

One of the suspects was a former district attorney, Louis Conradt, who shot himself to death when police entered his home with a search warrant.

Conradt's sister slapped NBC Universal with a $105 million suit claiming that the company took over police duties and failed to protect her brother.

The arrests and the suicide have drawn new attention to the series and whether its tactics are compatible with journalistic or legal standards.

The Dallas Morning News reported that a "20/20" news crew questioned Murphy police chief Billy Myrick about the cases in a City Hall parking lot last week.

This thing is going to get very interesting because of all the gray area involved. Yes, it's good to dissuade pedophiles, but is this the way? Is it working, anyway? Is it legal? Is NBC acting ethically? Is what Chris Hansen is doing actually news? What about that change in status that pulls Dateline away from the news division?

Lotsa questions.