Dateline producer suing NBC after she was 'forced to lure sex offenders with her own photo and pose as bait'

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By David Mccormack - The Daily Mail




Women working at NBC’s Dateline show are regularly asked to pose as ‘sexual bait’ for stories about prostitution, sex trafficking, and sexual deviants according to a female producer who is now suing the network.

New York-based Kimberly Lengle, 33, says she quit the program last April after a senior HR director failed to follow-up on her complaints about the practice.

‘NBC filmed Lengle for dozens of scenes using hidden cameras. Some scenes involved her saying and doing things that made her feel uncomfortable and vulnerable because of her sex,’ states her civil suit.

Lengle was hired as a producer for the Dateline series Wild Wild Web by supervisor Dan Slepian in 2012, reports TMZ.

According to court papers, Lengle claims Slepian criticized her for not dressing provocatively enough and even asked why she didn’t have any nude photos of herself to send to men looking for ‘personal assistants’, but who were really after sexual playthings.

‘As part of the story development process, the producers required her to engage in sexual role play and serve as bait for the targets,’ the filing said.

When Lengle spoke about her concerns to NBC’s Standards Department, she was assured that she wouldn’t have to do anything that made her queasy, the suit states.

A step too far for Lengle was when Slepian wanted her to post a photo of herself on Craigslist in response to an ad by a sexual deviant looking for a ‘human punching bag.’

‘She told him that she believed it was dangerous for her to have sent her photograph, which the target could upload to multiple adult websites,’ the suit states.

In the end many of the segments never aired.

In her lawsuit Lengle also argues that male producers were never required to do stories based on sex. Any non-sexual stories that she pitched were either turned down or given to male staffers.

An NBC News spokeswoman told TMZ that Lengle’s allegations were taken ‘very seriously’ but the company ‘determined that her claims were without merit.’

[deebakes]