It’s sweeps month, so it should come as no surprise that nightly newscasts are practically bursting at the seams with salacious stories. The folks at WYFF, the leading news station in the Upstate, have decided that now is the time to inform parents about online sexual predators.  And that’s well and good. But it’s kind of like being stopped by a religious pamphleteer who wants to if you’ve heard of Jesus. Well, of course you have.

The first report begin with this:

Even though anyone with children has certainly heard the warnings about sexual predators on the Internet, convincing parents in the WYFF News 4 viewing area to believe their children are in danger has been difficult, according to Greenville Police Detective Rick Floyd.

“A lot of them do want to live in denial. They think, well, if I don’t know about it, it’s not happening. But it is, and that’s why I want to get the word out. You know, it’s not something that’s happening across the United States. It’s right here. It’s in our community. It’s in our neighborhoods,” Floyd said.

However, when WYFF went looking for a flesh and blood predator to interview for a follow up report they had to travel all the way to Augusta, Ga., well outside of the WYFF viewing area.


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