Thompson's Slow-Pitch Softball

For all his performance skills, Thompson may find that the game still requires him to hit big-league pitching from established journalists. And even with his late entry, there are still plenty of innings to go.

To Catch a Network

ABC's Brian Ross, who exposed Mark Foley's X-rated correspondence with House pages, is again looking into sexual exploitation of youngsters. But this time he has taken aim at his former network, NBC.

In a "20/20" segment Friday, Ross questioned the role of NBC's "Dateline" in a sting against child predators in Murphy, Tex. The controversy surrounding the program's "To Catch a Predator" series reached critical mass after a Texas prosecutor dropped charges last spring against 23 men arrested in the probe, and another suspect committed suicide.

District Attorney John Roach told ABC the evidence was too flawed for him to prosecute, in part because of mistakes by Perverted Justice, an organization hired by "Dateline" to lure predators to meeting places by having decoys pose online as teenagers. As in past episodes, police made arrests after correspondent Chris Hansen confronted the men with the cameras rolling.

In an interview, Ross rejected criticism from NBC executives that he is just trying to tarnish a competitor . The Texas tale, he says, "just really seemed like a good and important story. . . .

"What is the role of the media? Are they agents of the police?" asks Ross, who left NBC in 1994. While he regularly works with law enforcement, Ross says, in this case "the thing I was struck by was how the police and media roles seemed to have merged."

The Texas case marks the first time that charges have been dropped in the two years of the "Dateline" series. In 10 other stings, more than 200 men have been indicted and 120 convicted.

Louis Conradt Jr., a prosecutor from another county who was caught in the sting, shot himself to death last year when arresting officers broke his door down at home as Hansen and his crew stood nearby. Former detectives told Ross that such tactics were used to accommodate "Dateline." Conradt's sister has filed a lawsuit against NBC.

In a follow-up segment last week, Hansen cited a police report in saying Conradt may have been worried about "something possibly more damning" -- child pornography found on his computers. Hansen also contended that Roach could have made a case against the other suspects despite the fact that the Murphy police arrested them without warrants. NBC says warrants are not required under Texas law.

In an interview, Hansen calls it "preposterous to suggest we tried to influence police to execute an arrest warrant at the home of Louis Conradt Jr. It just didn't happen, and that's the truth."

"Dateline" Executive Producer David Corvo says ABC used "merely recycled, unfounded accusations from discredited sources." He did not explain how Roach had been discredited, other than to criticize his prosecutorial judgment.

Citing previous articles, Corvo says, "There was not a single new solitary fact or interview in the whole piece. I wonder what their motive was." Asked why NBC did not grant "20/20" an on-camera interview, Corvo says: "We're not going to help another program with ratings."