TV Station In Kansas City Accused of Entrapment

[RadJock]

TV Station Accused of Entrapment
Thursday March 30 2006 7:33

One of this city's leading TV news departments is drawing the ire of the Independence Police Department after pulling a stunt designed to trap law enforcement officials in a compromising position. Sources tell KMBZ, that KCTV Channel 5 sent a man to the Independence police department late, early Saturday morning with a phony story about wanting to want to file a complaint about an officer. When that proved impossible...the man became aggressive and tried to get officers to overreact. The Independence police chief is considering legal action against Channel 5 and the Police Complaint Center saying this whole episode is really disappointing.

=======
Channel 5 didn't come up with the idea of this story on its own. A south Florida television did the same thing back in February. WFOR T-V had a producer -- with a hidden camera --- visit 38 police agencies in Broward & Miami-Dade counties asking to get a form to file a complaint against an officer. The story said most of the time, police were courteous & professional but others were not. Since then, a Broward County Police union has posted a "be-on-the-lookout" alert on the WFOR investigative reporter on its website. WFOR by the way is a CBS affiliate.

(kmbz)

 

[BoardmanDJ]

How pathetic. Channel 5 used to be an excellent news station. KCMO TV was awesome. When it became KCTV (under the same ownership, as they sold off their radio properties) it seems to start it's slide downward. When they got the old boys to retire, it went into the passing lane straight to the hot place.


> TV Station Accused of Entrapment
> Thursday March 30 2006 7:33
>
> One of this city's leading TV news departments is drawing
> the ire of the Independence Police Department after pulling
> a stunt designed to trap law enforcement officials in a
> compromising position. Sources tell KMBZ, that KCTV Channel
> 5 sent a man to the Independence police department late,
> early Saturday morning with a phony story about wanting to
> want to file a complaint about an officer. When that proved
> impossible...the man became aggressive and tried to get
> officers to overreact. The Independence police chief is
> considering legal action against Channel 5 and the Police
> Complaint Center saying this whole episode is really
> disappointing.
>
> =======
> Channel 5 didn't come up with the idea of this story on its
> own. A south Florida television did the same thing back in
> February. WFOR T-V had a producer -- with a hidden camera
> --- visit 38 police agencies in Broward & Miami-Dade
> counties asking to get a form to file a complaint against an
> officer. The story said most of the time, police were
> courteous & professional but others were not. Since then, a
> Broward County Police union has posted a "be-on-the-lookout"
> alert on the WFOR investigative reporter on its website.
> WFOR by the way is a CBS affiliate.
>
> (kmbz)
>

 

[rugrats1]

> A south Florida television did the same thing back in
> February... a
> Broward County Police union has posted a "be-on-the-lookout"
> alert on the WFOR investigative reporter on its website.
> WFOR by the way is a CBS affiliate.

Or rather, a CBS O&O station -- like many of them, they pull these shenannigans to get people to tune in, and, as indicated by their ratings, failed.

 

[Darrel]

> > A south Florida television did the same thing back in February... a Broward
> > County Police union has posted a "be-on-the-lookout" alert on the WFOR
> > investigative reporter on its website. WFOR by the way is a CBS affiliate.

> Or rather, a CBS O&O station -- like many of them, they pull these
> shenannigans to get people to tune in, and, as indicated by their ratings,
> failed.

While WFOR is a CBS O&O, KCTV is affiliated with CBS (owned by Meredith, if I'm not mistaken). Makes one wonder if some consultant at CBS openly suggested this idea to the affiliates (whether they were O&O or not)... or KCTV decided to do this by themselves ("Hey," they probably thought, "if another CBS station is doing this, why not us?"). Either way, this story is, without a doubt, a lame stunt and not responsible journalism.