NBC and the group Perverted Justice have worked together several times for Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" series, but now the network is being sued after one man in Murphy, Texas shot himself while police and camera crews surrounded his home.

The man, Bill Conradt Jr., an assistant county prosecutor, had been accused of engaging in a sexually explicit chat with an adult posing as a thirteen year old boy. Two dozen other men from the same area were also arrested, but the district attorney refused to prosecute, citing the involvement of amateurs in the sting operation. The city manager was also fired for allowing the sting to take place without permission from the mayor or city council.

Dateline NBC's journalistic integrity is being called into question after it was revealed that the network paid an organization to set up a pedophile sting for an ongoing investigation titled "To Catch A Predator." An organization called "Perverted Justice" was paid by NBC to set up a sting operation in which sexual predators were lured to a house in Ohio where they were caught by officials. NBC is insisting it did nothing wrong, and that Web-based crimes require new ways of approaching stories. Others disagree, claiming that by money exchanging hands the credibility of the story was affected.

The USA Today piece also had this quote: "NBC said it received at least 15,000 letters or e-mails in response to its February story. Not one parent complained about the journalistic methods used to film the piece, [Dateline NBC executive producer David Corvo] said." Well, they certainly didn't receive any complaints about NBC paying Perverted Justice, because no one knew about it when the segments aired.

Dateline NBC will add an extra element to its broadcast on Friday night, an online chat. It's fitting, considering the subject matter. The news magazine will feature its third report to scare the crap out of parents about sexual predators on the internet. Reporter Chris Hansen and members of the vigilante group Perverted Justice will lure sexual predators from internet chat rooms to a house in which they are hiding. When the predator knocks on the door, Hansen and a camera crew will be there to confront the sicko (they do these undercover reports on the local news here in Portland, and they're pretty darn terrifying).

During Friday night's broadcast of Dateline NBC, reporter Chris Hansen will be hosting a live chat to answer questions and tell stories about the sexual predators that didn't make it into the final cut. Of course, this live chat is only for the East coast airing of Dateline from 9-11 pm.