The problem is that TV shows tend to only cater for the ‘lowest common denominator’. However if Vice magazine did a documentary on the net, it would probably be hilariously humiliating, even if it only appeals to a few people.

It may be really difficult for a western media company to produce that moment-defining, industry shaking documentary that scares the parents of university graduates who wish to travel for a year in Asia. China would be very keen to prevent the production of anything that casts the country in a bad light (A company as big as Al-Jazeera got kicked out!), therefore it might be impossible to target the TCs directly. Even though it could be argued that the government actually wishes to make things more difficult for the crap schools through increased visa regulations. As I have said, something's happening, but we aren't quite sure what it is yet. It could actually be an excessive, heavy handed, xenophobic path taken for the more honourable purpose of ridding the country of its plague of shittier kinds of foreigners in their eyes, who knows?

Some real Donal MacIntyre secret camera type shit would be required for a good investigation and training a realistic looking faux young teacher for that kind of job, organising the support teams, legal team etc in China would be near impossible. If it was ever to be done, it would actually make great TV. Hell if I'd secretly filmed some conversations that I had with one previous employer, their company would be pretty much destroyed by now.

Besides, most younger foreign teachers are just written off by society in the west as the well-educated children of middle-class backpackers. A bunch of silly kids that have always had it far too easy, just wish to get drunk and high all the time, whilst avoiding the real world of work in the west and student debt for a little longer. Hardly the kind of humanitarian tragedy that lets say; the trafficking of teenage Eastern-European girls into illegal brothels or the drug-related civil wars in Central America would represent. TV shows need to appeal to normal people to get ratings and the websites are often not really taken seriously.

However, if an investigation for a documentary focused upon those recruiters or agents that are based in the West... That could be different. Especially those such as that International Teaching Agency or whatever it was. If they are taking payments in the U.S, they will probably be subject to local laws and stuff.

Finally, one can take solace in that this kind of thing has actually been done on the Chinese side, however it focused on the effects upon scammed local customers rather than teachers. Foreign teachers gave evidence to the show on CCTV, their identities were hidden as well. EF has apparently suffered really badly as result of people being aware of them doing stuff like not respecting their own 14 day guarantee, etc. When I last walked past an EF branch and saw foreign teachers outside in shit weather handing out leaflets in desperation, I can't help think that EF might have taken a big hit due to the negative press that they received. Somebody posted stuff about it on here previously, can't remember who it was though.