Media Matters And Others Do The Right Thing Not Showing Erin Andrews Images

Media Matters for America is reporting that two news organizations have shown stills from the secretly-taken video of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews (reportedly with no or very few clothes on). It’s bad enough that some worthless idiot felt the need to exploit her in such a nasty way, but now people are piggybacking this situation to shock people by showing portions of the video while reporting the story.

This is from Media Matters:

Fox & Friends repeatedly aired numerous video stills from a videotape surreptitiously taken of ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews nude in a hotel room, while CBS’ The Early Show aired several seconds of the Andrews videotape with some of her body parts blurred.

More from Media Matters:

On July 21, Fox & Friends repeatedly aired numerous video stills from a videotape surreptitiously taken of ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews nude in a hotel room. Fox News’ stills, which were prominently displayed on-screen, repeatedly showed Andrews’ face while covering some of her body parts with lacy red tape. In addition, during CBS’ The Early Show, science and technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg played several seconds of the Andrews videotape with parts of her body blurred.

ESPN’s general counsel has reportedly written to at least one website stating that the “posting of these pictures are highly likely to render you an accessory after the fact to a criminal act,” while a lawyer for Andrews has “request[ed] respect of Erin’s privacy at this time.”

Reporter Kate Snow reported on the Andrews story for ABC’s Good Morning America during the 7 a.m. ET hour, but did not show stills or video from the videotape. ABC and ESPN are both owned by The Walt Disney Co.

While Media Matters for America regularly provides video for segments, Media Matters will not provide video or provide the still shots Fox News aired. The following are screen captures from the Fox & Friends segment and CBS segment with black boxes replacing footage and stills from the video.

I comment Media Matters for not sinking so low as to republish these photos that robbed Erin Andrews of her privacy while violating her in ways we all should find highly offensive and very illegal.

Erin Andrews Story Is Disturbing, But Where Is The Link To Women Journalists Covering Sports?

With interest, I wanted to read what sounds like a disturbing story surrounding ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, a hotel room, a peephole and a voyeuristic lowlife.

Here is an excerpt of a story from Yahoo Sports:

It’s never been easy for female sports journalists. From Lisa Olson being sexually harassed while covering the New England Patriots to Suzy Kolber having to fend off the advances of a drunk Joe Namath on national television to MMA reporter Loretta Hunt being called an unacceptable name for womenon camera by UFC president Dana White, women have had to overcome obstacles not faced by their male counterparts.

That doesn’t even take into account that women on television are judged for not just what they know but what they look like. Most female sports journalists have dealt with these difficulties with aplomb. However, they were magnified considerably this week when ESPN reporter Erin Andrews became a victim of video voyeurism after someone shot video of her in a private moment through her hotel room peephole.

In conjunction with ESPN and her attorney, Andrews is working with authorities to catch the perpetrators of this heinous act, but the damage has been done. Her privacy has been invaded, and the video of her naked body is out there. Most Web sites have deleted the video under threat of legal action, but that can’t undo the fact that it was shot and posted in the first place.

OK, so now I am thinking that something happened with regard to her performing her job and it involved some athlete who had gotten out of line with her and needed to be called out. That first paragraph seems to cite incidents involving women reporters put into bad positions by people during the course of doing work.

Now, this issue with Erin Andrews sounds more like a random jerk (or jerks) doing to the ESPN reporter what probably happens to a lot of women (celebrities or otherwise).

So, I am having a hard time seeing this as some kind of woman sports reporter civil rights issue (not that there are not challenges out there for women reporters covering male sports … there are).

Another excerpt:

Now that Andrews is a victim of this crime, why would a woman want to follow her on camera? That’s not the sort of thing that ESPN co-workers Chris Berman or Stuart Scott have to worry about.

What do Berman and Scott have to do with this particular issue?

Beyond the fact that she is a high-profile sports reporter, what does this have to do with sports?

She was not victimized while performing her job (based on what I read).

Rather than the Scott/Berman question, a better question would be to ask why the crime Andrews seems to be a victim of any different than other women (or men) filmed by perverts when they don’t know it. The writer (and I am not simply trying to attack) seems to be trying to make this into some kind of equality issue when it seems to be a crime that has nothing to do with sports other than the fact that she is a prominent sports reporter. I am not asserting that this is a story that should not be reported on, but I had a difficult time following the path the writer was headed down.

Let us hope that whoever perpetrated this crime is apprehended and punished appropriately.