What Primetime and the Cornell 7 say about the limits of "justice"
There is a moment a little after the halfway mark of Lance Oppenheim's Primetime where Chris Hansen has just confronted a pedophile. He is stumbling through his familiar dialogue, uttering the well know phrase, "You see how this looks, right?". In response, the pedophile points a finger in his face and asks, "What gives you the right?" During this scene, the movie switches the cinematography. We are removed from the fake kitchen where Chris Hansen has repeatedly asked the man to sit down, and instead transported to a void. The camera presses up close to both actors; they look vibrant against a now pitch-black background, glowing under a dramatic spotlight. I believe this is one of the scenes that made some moviegoers decide that Primetime was demonizing Chris Hansen. But I think it is actually asking (for just one second) a more nuanced question: "Why does Chris Hansen have the power to do this? Who gave him the right to deliver judgment on these men?...
