catch and release...

One more annoying head-scratcher from Reason, written by Radley Balko...

DATELINE NBC'S hit spin-off To Catch a Predator may be the first TV show to become a hit by setting up real-life stings. Members of the vigilante group Perverted Justice pose as minors in Internet chat rooms and attempt to lure men into meeting them for sex. The result--part Candid Camera, part Cops--has made host Chris Hansen a pop culture celebrity, inspiring Saturday Night Live and the producers of countess YouTube videos to spoof his on-camera confrontations with suspected perverts....

In June prosecutors in Murphy, Texas, announced they had to drop charges against all 24 suspects arrested during To Catch a Predator's stings. The 25th suspect was Louis Conradt Jr., a prosecutor in a neighboring county. When Dateline's cameras came to his door to confront him, he shot himself fatally in the head. Conradt's boss, Rockwall County District Attorney Galen Ray Sumrow, told the Columbia Journalism Review that film clips show Dateline personnel instructing police on tactics. He believes police rushed Conradt's arrest instead of talking him out of his home to ensure the show got good footage before the crew was due to fly out that afternoon.