an undisclosed settlement that June. Criticism The series was accused of making news rather than reporting news, blurring the line between being a news organization versus an agency of law enforcement. Among the more prominent critics of the series has been Brian Montopoli of the CBS News Public Eye blog and formerly of the Columbia Journalism Review. Montopoli argues that although Dateline NBC leaves legal punishment up to police and prosecutors, broadcasting the suspects on national television, in the context of exposing criminal behavior, is already a form of punishment which the media have no right to inflict. Montopoli also suggests that NBC News is more concerned about ratings than actually bringing online predators to justice: In the United Kingdom, columnist and television critic Charlie Brooker wrote of the show, "When a TV show makes you feel sorry for potential child-rapists, you know it's doing something wrong". He also commented on the "overpowering whiff of entrapment" and the potential for viewer complicity. Brooker also mentioned the selection process for the actress as being disturbing by adding "Presumably someone at To Catch a Predator HQ sat down with a bunch of audition tapes and spooled through it, trying to find a sexy 18-year-old who could pass for 13. They'll have stared at girl after girl, umming and ahhing over their chest sizes, until they found just the right one. And like I say, she's hot. But if you fancy her, you're a paedophile." In May 2007, Marsha Bartel, a former investigative producer for Dateline, filed a $1 million breach of contract lawsuit against NBC, stating that the network fired her the year prior, with three years left on her four-year contract, and after 21 years at the company, after she refused to work on the To Catch a Predator because of ethical concerns she had about the series. Specifically, she said that Perverted Justice failed to keep accurate, verifiable records of its online interactions with suspects, which had been cite by some of the arrested men's attorneys who argued they were victims of entrapment. NBC, however, stated that Bartel was terminated because of budget cutbacks. The lawsuit was dismissed by the New York Supreme Court in October 2007. Federal Judge John W. Darrah explained that NBC has the legal right to dismiss employees without notification. NBC reacted to the outcome by issuing a statement that read "We believed from the beginning