NY Post: ESPN outed own reporter in nude video

Published - Jul 23 2009 11:18PM EDT



Erin Andrews arrives at the ESPY Awards on Wednesday July 15, 2009, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

The New York Post on Thursday defended its publication of photos from an illicitly filmed Internet video showing ESPN reporter Erin Andrews naked in a hotel room by accusing the sports network of having outed her.

ESPN on Wednesday said it was banning Post reporters from appearing on the company's programs because the newspaper published three photos from the video.

A newspaper spokeswoman declined to comment on the ban. She referred The Associated Press to an item on the Post's gossip page published Thursday that takes ESPN to task for allegedly outing Andrews.

"No one would have known that a sick voyeur had secretly videotaped ESPN reporter Erin Andrews nude in her hotel room, if the Mickey Mouse sports network hadn't sent a letter to an obscure Web site demanding that it take down its link to a fuzzy video of an unidentified blonde," the Post said in its popular "Page 6" column.

The Post quoted ESPN spokesman Chris LaPlaca as saying the network is acting "in concert with Erin and her team." A spokesman for the Bristol, Conn.-based company, which is owned by the Walt Disney Co., declined further comment Thursday.

ESPN executive editor John Walsh, in an interview Thursday on a syndicated radio show hosted by former ESPN employee Dan Patrick, called the Post's coverage embarrassing and reprehensible to Andrews.

"We felt if we were the parents of the victim of this crime and we saw the words 'New York Post' on our air that we wouldn't be doing justice to the person that we know is our colleague," he said.

ESPN last week sent a letter to a Web site demanding that the video be removed. The person who posted the video didn't identify the nude woman, but her attorney has confirmed the video was of the 31-year-old reporter.

The Post was one of several TV networks and newspapers that aired or published images from the video, which Andrews' attorney says was shot without her knowledge. Andrews plans to seek criminal charges and file civil lawsuits against the person who shot the video and anyone who publishes the material, attorney Marshall Grossman said.

Grossman previously told the AP that Andrews decided to confirm it was her "to put an end to rumor and speculation and to put the perpetrator and those who are complicit on notice that they act at their peril."

Post reporters, including columnists Lenn Robbins, Kevin Kernan, Joel Sherman and Mark Cannizzaro, are regular guests on ESPN shows.

Andrews, a former University of Florida dance team member, was an Internet sensation even before the video's circulation. Some Web sites have referred to her as "Erin Pageviews" because of the traffic she can generate, and Playboy magazine named her "sexiest sportscaster" in both 2008 and 2009. She has covered numerous sports for the network since 2004, often as a sideline reporter.

http://www.rr.com/home/home/article/rr/9...ideo/full/

Insurance man accused of stalking ESPN's Andrews

Published - Oct 03 2009 11:45AM HAST

By MIKE ROBINSON - AP Legal Affairs Writer


In this Saturday, Oct. 3, 2009 courtroom sketch, Michael David Barrett appears for a hearing at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in Chicago. The Chicago-area man accused of filming surreptitious nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews in a hotel room was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare airport Friday night. (AP Photo/Lou Chukman)

An insurance man called "as regular a guy as you'll ever meet" was ordered back to California on Saturday to face charges that he stalked ESPN reporter Erin Andrews and made nude videos of her by aiming his cellphone camera through the peephole in her hotel room door.

Michael David Barrett, 47, of Westmont, Ill., was being held in jail over the weekend while awaiting a judge's decision Monday on whether he will go to Los Angeles as a federal prisoner or free on bail.

Barrett, clad in the bright orange jumpsuit of a federal prisoner, made a brief initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys after being arrested Friday night by FBI agents at O'Hare International Airport.

"I don't think he's even had a traffic ticket," said his lawyer, Rick Beuke. "He's as regular a guy as you'll ever meet _ a great friend," said the attorney, who said he had known Barrett for a decade. "I must have calls from 30 people wanting to know what they could do to help."

Beuke said Barrett had been divorced for some time and had children. A neighbor in Westmont, Srividhya Viswanath, 36, a homemaker, said Barrett lived quietly in a townhome complex with a female companion. She said she never got to know them well in part because they traveled frequently.

A spokeswoman for the Combined Insurance Company of America confirmed that Barrett was an employee who worked in sales management. Amy Burrell-Tichy said the company was cooperating with the FBI.

Barrett faces charges of interstate stalking for allegedly taking videos of Andrews in her hotel rooms while she was covering sporting events, trying to sell them to celebrity Web site TMZ and posting the videos online. The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The charges were filed in Los Angeles, where TMZ is based.

Beuke said he did not discuss the particulars of the charges when he met briefly with Barrett, surrounded by FBI agents, in court. He said he would study the FBI affidavit and try to meet with Barrett on Sunday to learn more.

Several TV networks and newspapers had aired clips or printed screen grabs from the videos of Andrews in July. The 31-year-old has covered hockey, college football, college basketball and Major League Baseball for ESPN since 2004 and was named "sexiest sportscaster" by Playboy magazine in 2008 and 2009.

Asked how Barrett had gotten interested in Andrews, if the allegations are true, or how he managed to get the adjacent hotel rooms, Beuke said he assumed it was not true. Chicago FBI spokesman Ross Rice said he did not know how Barrett allegedly became interested in Andrews.

An FBI affidavit said agents had reviewed eight videos and all but one had appeared to be taken in a single hotel. It said Andrews had reviewed several and said they appeared to be of her in a room at the Marriott Nashville at Vanderbilt University.

Authorities said Barrett had occupied an adjacent room, and that the peephole in the door of Andrews' room appeared to have been modified with a hacksaw to permit videos to be made with a cellphone camera.

Agents also went to the Ramada Conference Center in Milwaukee, formerly the Radisson Airport. The affidavit said Barrett had made a reservation in the hotel for a night when Andrews was staying there and that the peephole in the room that she occupied had been similarly modified.

But they said Barrett had never checked in, and the interior of the room did not fully match what was seen on the eighth video.

Wyndam Worldwide Corp., which owns Ramada, and Marriott International Inc. did not immediately return calls for comment.

The affidavit said that in making his reservation in Nashville, Barrett specifically requested a room next to Andrews, who was referred to in the FBI document as "individual A."

Reservation records in the hotel's computer showed the notation: "INFO-GST RQST TO RM NXT TO (individual A)," the affidavit said.

Andrews thanked FBI agents and federal prosecutors for their work and said she hoped the case will eventually help others.

"For my part, I will make every effort to strengthen the laws on a state and federal level to better protect victims of criminal stalking," she said in a statement.

Andrews was scheduled to work the Auburn-Tennessee game Saturday night in Knoxville, Tenn.

Her attorney, Marshall Grossman, said the videos appeared to have been taped by a serial stalker who followed her from city to city.

"He wasn't an accidental tourist," he said. "He had her in his sights."

Barrett tried to sell the videos to TMZ, but an employee there informed Andrews' attorneys, according to the complaint.

FBI agents matched information in the e-mail to Barrett, and examined telephone records and credit card charges from Barrett's Nashville hotel stay. Agents also concluded that the videos of Andrews were likely recorded by a cell phone.

Messages left at a phone listing for a Michael D. Barrett in Westmont weren't immediately returned. Barrett's father, Frank Barrett, 78, of Milwaukie, Ore., a suburb of Portland, said Saturday morning that he hadn't yet been able to speak to his son. But he said the arrest came as a shock and the situation "does not match the Mike I know."

"He's always been an upstanding, hardworking guy," Frank Barrett said.

___

Associated Press Writers Raquel Maria Dillon in Los Angeles, Erin Gartner in Chicago and Sports Writer Ben Walker in New York contributed to this report.

http://www.rr.com/sports/topic/article/r...case/full/

What are the rules regarding cameras in the courtroom? I remember back in the 70's when reporting on high-profile cases on the news that it was always courtroom sketches that were used during commentary.

Now it seems like we televise everything...does that apply to federal cases as well?

He's a pervent, but at least he has good taste. I really do feel sorry for Ms. Andrews. Glad to see her back on the tube.

He's a perv. She's hot. I went over the top more than a bit in my disagreement to the posting on this UC site. I still agree with the theme of my previous posts, but I hope I never do it again. The internet, its serious business.

Now I don't know what to think. I just may have to go watch the video, again.

Mind if I secretly tape you while ya do?