The secretly taped video of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews in her hotel room is an example of media at its most viral — although online for months, it didn’t catch fire until last week when it became Google’s most-searched subject and put the Bristol-based sports network at the center of the story.
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The New York Post stirred more controversy Wednesday when it published stills from the video to accompany a news story about the incident.
In response, ESPN banned New York Post staffers from appearing on its programs, and a spokesman for ESPN said the decision “went well beyond the boundaries of common decency.”
Kelly McBride, who specializes in ethics at the journalism think tank the Poynter Institute, said the Post’s decision served prurience rather than journalism.
“I really think that before you decide whether to publicize or not, the first threshold is not whether it’s legal, the first is whether this has a journalistic interest,” she said.
Read more in the Hartford Courant.
See also the AP story, NY Post: ESPN outed own reporter in nude video.