8 September
2006 Chatmag News.
In a report filed
on the Radaronline.com web site, reporter John Cook goes for the jugular
in his criticism of both Dateline NBC and the renegade vigilante group
Perverted Justice.
Criticism of the
vigilante group began in February of 2004 with a series of articles on
Chatmag.com, followed shortly by the creation of Corrupted-Justice.com
in April of the same year. Corrupted-Justice is a site dedicated to exposing
the flaws of vigilante groups, and in particular Perverted-Justice.
In the Radaronline
article, John Cook profiles the owner of Perverted-Justice, Phillip Eide,
who uses the nome de plume of Xavier Von Erck. Eide, Cook describes, is
a "27-year-old community college dropout from Portland, OR" who "once set
out to destroy an enemy by posing as a woman, seducing him online with
graphic sex chats, posting the transcripts on the web, and threatening
to release a purported video of his target masturbating—not the kind of
behavior you'd expect from NBC News's golden boy."
The criticism
of Dateline NBC and Perverted-Justice.com is not confined to Chatmag, Corrupted-justice.com
or Radaronline.com. Journalism Ethics scholars have recently taken Dateline
NBC to task for crossing the line between reporting the news, and creating
the news.
Members of the
Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce have also spoken out against
the methods used by Pervered-Justice.com.
In the Radaronline
article, "Brad Russ, the former commander of the Internet Crimes Against
Children Task Force (ICAC) for Northern New England, a federal program
designed to help local authorities fight child pornography and Internet
predators, has participated in many online sting operations. "I have a
real problem with any citizens' group conducting any investigation into
any crime," he says. "It's a mistake for law enforcement to abdicate its
responsibility to citizens."
Chatmag, Corrupted-Justice.com
and a third site, the Anti Vigilante Special Operations, have been the
few voices of warning for two years against the vigilante group. There
is now a sea change, with the winds blowing against Perverted-Justice and
NBC. NBC chose to hire a group, either without doing due diligence, or
ignoring the warning signs. In the rush to gain ratings, NBC has further
tainted their credibility as a legitimate news organization.
--Chatmag News
Staff-
External Links:
Chatmag
News Special Report 17 Feb. 2004
Vigilante Web
Site Perverted-Justice.com harming legitimate law enforcement efforts to
stop online predators. Chatmag opposes "vigilante" web site.
Radaronline.com
Strange Bedfellows by John Cook.
Corrupted-Justice.com
AVSO.
Anti Vigilante Special Operations.
