Kelly McBride, Poynter Institute ethics group leader, does not like the fact that James O?Keefe and Hannah Giles used deception to orchestrate expos?s of several ACORN offices. McBride says,
But undercover work is often considered outside the boundaries of acceptable methods. It can be very problematic if your first value as a reporter is to tell the truth, and the first thing you do is deceive. It?s very hard for the public to figure out when to trust you.
Interestingly, in an article from 2007, McBride does not raise the same concerns about Dateline NBC’s undercover “To Catch a Predator” segments, which uses deceptive emails, texts, and posts to bait and arrest child sex predators.
