TVSquad

I wouldn't say that we here at TV Squad have been purposefully silent about this Erin Andrews peephole mishegas; there's just been more interesting stuff going on. It seemed like a small, albeit creepy, story on the surface: popular sideline reporter and object of the blogosphere's affection gets shot naked in her hotel room through a peephole.

Without a doubt, it's a depressing story, both for Andrews, whose privacy was violated on many levels, and for the sports blogosphere, who have to endure yet another accusation that their frat boy shenanigans helped foster this kind of behavior. But it was still a small story. That was, of course, until The New York Post decided to make the oh-so-classy move of publishing stills of the video in print and on their website.

Now it's getting serious: ESPN has banned all Post reporters from appearing on any of their shows.

For it's part, the Post says, via the even-more-classy Page Six, that they wouldn't have printed the photos in the first place if ESPN hadn't gone after the people who put the videos on the web. In effect, it's ESPN's fault for outing their own employee in an effort to protect her. The bastards.

How the hell did we get here? Andrews isn't the first attractive woman to work the sidelines of a ballgame. And many of those women have been as attractive or more attractive than Andrews (Lisa Guerrero anyone?). Why were we in the blogosphere so obsessed with her in the first place? Maybe some of you folks can let me know, as I'm having a hard time figuring out how Peepgate (yes, I'm calling it that) became the big media kerfuffle of Summer '09.

Anyway, hopefully Andrews can use this new-found but unwanted notoriety to her advantage. Some questionable on-the-job clothing decisions aside, Andrews does a credible and professional job, and has even taken the online drooling over her in stride. Maybe, with so much attention currently on her, she can land a higher-profile gig and just keep doing good work (as good work as any sideline reporter can do... they're mostly there for show).

[via Mediabistro and Deadspin]