If you ever needed a classic illustration of how an opportunistic candidate for public office avoided scrutiny and received a mainstream media free pass then fasten your attention on California and the classic case of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Last Saturday night NBC's Dateline resumed its series on sexual predators, targeting adult males who engaged in chat room conversations and made appointments to meet females under the age of legal consent.  

When they showed up for the anticipated assignations the men were greeted instead by Dateline commentator Chris Hansen and a battery of NBC cameras.  After talking to Hansen with great embarrassment they stepped outside, to be greeted by the local police.  With guns raised the officers commanded them to lie down on the ground, whereupon they were handcuffed.

There is one story, however, that the moral guardians of NBC Television will not handle about the predatory past of a famous individual who, unlike the truly confused and pathetic types revealed in the Dateline sting, had numerous advantages and has converted them to the position of untouchable.