Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Can Anyone Cast the First Stone?

It really hurts me to think that people in general, and men in particular, are so predictable. It's also too ironic that whenever anything remotely scandalous happens, the finger-pointing begins in earnest as each involved party tries to appear guiltless and above suspicion while painting the others involved as moral degenerates...and I'm not just talking about politics and politicians. Sadly for her, Erin Andrews gets to be the latest poster child for this, "Not ME, it's YOU who is degenerate" game.
Andrews, 31, is a widely-known, attractive sideline reporter for ESPN at sporting events...mainly football, I think. I know who she is but have never paid attention. I guess I always just watch the games. Anyway, nude photos of her have been splashed all over the web and in the New York Post this week. She was somehow photographed in her hotel room doing normal things: no sex, no orgy, just ironing her clothes, checking her figure and walking about the room. I'm sure it took great ingenuity to invade this young woman's privacy, but that's not the story as I see it.
The New York Post published some of the pictures recently, then proceeded to cover its behind (and hers) with judiciously placed black bars. "It's news because it's Erin Andrews," the tabloid seems to be saying. Anything to sell papers.
TMZ, a website that specializes in digging up video dirt on the famous, refused to show the photos, claiming that they were a gross invasion of privacy. Really? For a website that spcializes in invasion of privacy, this sounded a little too high-handed to me. I'll bet they were outbid for the prints by the Post.
ESPN doesn't get off by my count, either. It has taken the moral high road by banning Post reporters from its new coverage events. Sounds goo...and moral...and right. But who created the larger-than-life Andrews in the first place? With at lest three analysts for each and every football game on television, did we NEED an attractive woman on the sidelines reporting on such things as what the coach plans to do in the second half? I would never denigrate Andrews' or anyone else's ability to be a reporter, but think about it...guys like football (stereotypically), and guys like to ogle attractive women (think swimsuit editions of "sports" magazines); putting the two together made perfect sense for sports networks. Don't for a minute think her inclusion was to convince women to watch football...they are too smart to fall for a ploy like that. As a result, Andrews has become, perhaps, the most photographed woman in sports not to be part of a swimsuit issue. So, ESPN is complicit here: they created the sexy sports reporter persona. Claiming to be outraged sounds hollow to me. Won't this increase viewership of ESPN coverage? You bet it will.
Does Andrews capitalize on her attractiveness? probably; but it would seem that she still has to be knowledgable. It's sad to think that women still have to depend on physical attractiveness to get a foot in the door in some professions. I guess there's enough blame for everyone.
Oh, I haven't forgotten the photographer. He (or she) will claim to be making a living the best way possible...after all, scandal is where the money is. "I'm just trying to feed my family." This is the same story we get from athletes who need an additional $20 million dollars on a five-year deal. Sounds fishy to me.
But then, I just watch the games.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home