Esquire‘s Writer: NBC ‘Crossed A Line, And They Know It’

Last year, we (along with the rest of the media world) told you about Luke Dittrich‘s Esquire expose detailing the suicide of assistant district attorney Bill Conradt who was being investigated by Dateline NBC‘s To Catch a Predator. A $105-million lawsuit filed by Conradt’s sister was settled yesterday and we emailed Dittrich for his thoughts on the verdict:

“I have no way of knowing what sort of impact my story made. Patricia Conradt made her decision to move forward with a lawsuit against NBC while I was still reporting, so it wasn’t as though the article’s publication triggered the lawsuit or anything. But I wouldn’t be surprised if, at the very least, some of the things my article revealed caused NBC’s lawyers to wince. I’m not surprised they chose to settle. Win or lose, a trial would have shone a spotlight on exactly how To Catch a Predator operates. They crossed a line, and they know it.

Dateline has not aired a TCAP segment since December.

Finally, Matea Gold at the LA Times‘ Show Tracker blog, notes that Dateline‘s Web site has removed all traces of the episode (although it’s still available at archive.org).

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