BOB GARFIELD: Consider the sting. Agents go on the internet posing as young girls and boys and engage in on line chats with adults. The talk turns to sex, sometimes at the initiation of the fake teen; sometimes at the initiation of the targeted predator at the other end. Arrangements are made for them to meet. The target drives to a remote location for a sexual encounter with a child, only to discover the trap. It's a standard law enforcement technique, but what if the agents aren't cops but, in fact, vigilantes running the sting in cooperation with the local TV station? The unsuspecting men show up at a rented house only to be met with lights, microphones and cameras. Their startled mugs are then broadcast on the evening news. That's precisely what's been happening recently in several cities around the country. News crews have been teaming up with Perverted-Justice.com, a group that for the past two years has been setting up stings and posting pictures, phone numbers and addresses of the men they snare on the web. KCTV in Kansas City hired the group to help snare sixteen internet predators for its February sweeps week special. [SOUND Of CAR TIRES LOUDLY SQUEALING]

MAN:These men just drove to a house they'd never seen to meet a person they don't know for a reason that most people would define as perverted.

MAN: What'd you say [...?...]?

MAN: You're not here to have sex with a 14 year old girl?

MAN: Well, no!

VOICEOVER: Yes, he is. How do we know? Because we set it up.

BOB GARFIELD: Sam Zeff is executive producer of special projects at KCTV, and he joins me now. Sam, welcome to the show.

SAM ZEFF: Thank you, Bob.

BOB GARFIELD: Let me ask you, understanding that you're not law enforcement, and understanding that the men lured into this trap will, in all probability, have their lives ruined, what did you do to make absolutely certain that every "i" was dotted, every "t" crossed -- that these were genuine predators and not casual chatters on a lark, fooling around with no evil intent?

SAM ZEFF: Well, I can tell you that none of the men who came to our door were registered sex offenders; none even had a criminal record. Now-- what did we go through to make sure that we had - that we properly identified every man to make sure that we didn't put the wrong man with the wrong chat or the wrong face or the wrong name on television? The reporting on that was extensive from checking databases to actually taking these men's photographs out to check with neighbors to say, is this the man that you know as ______ (blank). It took weeks, hundreds of man hours to do. And by the time we put the story on television, we had uncovered that one of the men who came to our door was a recruiter for the United States Navy -- a man, Bob, a man who every day spent his time in high schools and malls, meeting with kids the same age as the person he thought he was going to meet to have sex. We uncovered a man who spent his evenings as a middle school and high school referee of volleyball. We uncovered a former federal police officer.

BOB GARFIELD: Has any of them been charged with a crime?

SAM ZEFF:No. Not to our knowledge, so far. Now, we know Navy NCIS is investigating our recruiter. That has so far not resulted in any charges, but that investigation is continuing.

BOB GARFIELD:At least one of the men stung by your investigation thinks that he was, in fact, lured into a situation that he would not otherwise have been in -- all of the sexual conversation was very much led by the person who he thought was a 14-year old girl --everything that he said in response was qualified by the LOL code which means "laugh out loud," which means "ha, ha, ha, just kidding." And though they discussed him showing up with condoms and liquor -- he showed up without a condom or any liquor. He further claims that he never even would have gone there had he not gotten a phone call promising sex from a woman he was certain was middle-aged. It's quite clear that this never would have held up in court in a law enforcement case against a suspected pedophile. Are the journalistic standards different?

SAM ZEFF: I think they absolutely are. As a journalist, I have the ethical obligation to make sure that the person I'm stinging, that I'm sure of his intent, and then I have to give him a reasonable chance to respond. And I would say, Bob, that talking about drinking and getting high and bringing prophylactics over to a 14-year old's house is, on its face, irresponsible. The only information this man had was what he gained through the chat. And I would say that any reasonable and responsible adult, if he is in a chat room, and all of a sudden that chat turns sexual, he has got to disengage that chat immediately. He didn't do it. He got in his car. He drove to this remote location-- I'm absolutely convinced of what his intentions were.

BOB GARFIELD: What about the larger issue of simply trawling for perverts. Is that the job of a news organization?

SAM ZEFF:Is it a huge problem? Yes. Is it our responsibility as journalists to show that problem and to expose it? It's absolutely our job. Local law enforcement is behind the curve. I mean we have the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri in our piece, saying as much. We've heard from police officers in this area, prosecutors, people who we deal with all the time - tell us, you know what - your story was right on. And I've heard and read in various publications that law enforcement in other communities where this particular story has been done are upset. I can tell you that here in Kansas City, only the FBI so far has had anything negative to say about our story.

BOB GARFIELD:God, this is a tough one. Let me tell you why it's so tough for me. You know, I'm, I'm certainly delighted that internet predators are being outed. I'm queasy journalistically, but can't even tell you why. I mean I cannot articulate for you what it is about this that makes me nervous…

SAM ZEFF: I think that your journalistic, if I may, instincts are right on, and they were exactly the feelings I had before we went down this road. But when you see the men, when you read the chats, when you understand that law enforcement, at least here in Kansas City, doesn't seem to have the ability to track these people down, and when you weigh the fact that you've got these 16 men that you've identified, that you've shown on television, and when you weigh that against the possibility of 16 young lives being ruined, I, I, I don't see how you can't move forward with this investigation and not feel good about its broadcast.

BOB GARFIELD: Well, Sam, thank you very much.

SAM ZEFF: Bob, it's my pleasure.

BOB GARFIELD: Sam Zeff is executive producer for special projects at KCTV in Kansas City.