Watched Erin Andrews‘ interview on Oprah today, which was shoehorned between two other interviews on the show.
When it was first made public that Andrews would appear on Oprah, I wrote a piece questioning her motivation. If she wanted the whole thing to go away, why introduce the story to millions who didn’t previously know about it?
After the watch, my take-away is different. Much different.
Two things struck me.
1) Her main message, though never said directly, was to ask the media, paparazzi and bloggers to leave her alone. By showing how the nude video episode wrecked her and her family’s lives, she appealed to the media’s common decency.
Naive on her part, to say the least. With many big media outlets, paparazzi and bloggers, you’re dealing with wretches and social cripples who have no concept of common decency. She would’ve been much better off not showing herself as vulnerable, as that only emboldens the many miscreants in the media.
2) The interview actually did come off as cathartic. Allowing her to air her views in public on the biggest stage she could find. Get it out there and then never talk about it again. After watching, that does now make sense.
Lastly, Andrews said she was resigned to the videos and screen shots being posted on the Internet to the end of time. I don’t agree that the distribution of the videos can’t be successfully policed. Not completely, but at the very least removed from top Google search results. I believe to this day that if Andrews had ignored the whole thing, it would’ve died a much quieter death. The more she acknowledged the videos, the bigger it became.
But you certainly can’t blame her for freaking out when she saw the videos, and it would be very difficult for anyone in her situation to ignore them going forward. I’m not criticizing her for the way she handled all this, but I do think the p.r. damage could’ve been mitigated more effectively.
I’ve changed my mind about why Andrews did Oprah. I don’t think it was intended to promote herself to the entertainment world - as a prelude to leaving sports. I really do think she’s still an emotional wreck and just trying to cope. And going on the record in public to a vast, empathic audience now does seem somewhat sensible.
But having appeared on Oprah, Andrews has now given the news of her violation a fresh set of legs. She shouldn’t be surprised to see media/blogger low-lifes and paparazzi once again appearing in her day-to-day.
5:47 pm on September 11th, 2009
It’d be weird if,instead of a table with nothing much on it, it was a chess table with a chess set on it. And not only that, the position of the pieces displayed the game of Fischer vs. Byrne, Rosenwald Memorial Tournament, 1963 at move 17. … Be6!! when Fischer sacrificed his Queen… And the ladies were analyzing the game, and Erin Andrews went to move a piece, and Oprah blocked her hand, saying, hold it, I want to analyze this position some more.
Wouldn’t it.
5:55 pm on September 11th, 2009
Um, yeah … (security!)
5:58 pm on September 11th, 2009
I was at a party last week where the topic turned to this Oprah interview, and half the people had to be informed of who Erin Andrews was. So yeah, this would have faded out a lot sooner had she not gone on.
6:14 pm on September 11th, 2009
What about stalkers, are they a go, or does she want them to leave her alone too?
On the biggest stage she could find, with the biggest fat ass she could find.
6:14 pm on September 11th, 2009
Was one of those people Oprah?
6:18 pm on September 11th, 2009
The question I have about this party is why did these people have to be informed? Sounds coercive….
6:23 pm on September 11th, 2009
Erin wants people to remember that she was nekid on tape, sure it was super creepy, sure it violated her rights, sure it crushed her family, sure it made her more visable to the public, sure it landed her on Oprah, sure sounds like it worked in her careers favor.
What happend was wrong, but its not like it was a porn tape.
She should have shut up about it and moved on, but like every chick, they love to be the center of attention, and once that light started to fade… bam here it is again. Whats next?
6:26 pm on September 11th, 2009
GIANTS, Crush Redskins 31-10, Redskins suck!!!!!!!!!
7:10 pm on September 11th, 2009
Nice to see we’ve fulfilled our Cro-Magnon quota just in time for the weekend.
7:12 pm on September 11th, 2009
Oprah should have asked her why the folded-over cardboard tube….errrrr, peephole…..moves during filming. And does Jason Varitek still have the master tape?
7:15 pm on September 11th, 2009
Lol…
Staged nekidness? No!
7:55 pm on September 11th, 2009
Brooks, I understand your sympathy, but once the kitty is out of the bag (so to speak), why not go with it. There’s no such thing as bad publicity, but there are such things as lack of publicity and missed opportunities……
8:14 pm on September 11th, 2009
Nice to see women can still easily manipulate men. Nothing ever changes. Human nature I guess.
8:27 pm on September 11th, 2009
me and erin want to have a family, would be nice if you bloggers stopped talking about her naked videos…
i understand its nice to look at, i see it every morning and night, and its great, but come on, show some class
10:02 pm on September 11th, 2009
“dealing with wretches and social cripples who have no concept of common decency.”
Yeah, that’s us!
11:07 pm on September 11th, 2009
Nobody is gonna post pix of her on the internet ‘for the end of time.’
FIrst off, not that long from the present in astronomical terms, our Sun will go supernova and burn the earth to a crisp… postings of Erin Andrews will suffer greatly from this, if no colonization to other planets has been successful up until that point. Postings could end well before that, even, as mankind mutates into vegetable matter in order survive.
Then, later, all the planets and stars gone, and everything will cool… definitely no postings of Erin Andrews by then. Finally the Universe reaching basically absolute zero in temperature and postings of Erin Andrews a very distant memory.
11:51 pm on September 11th, 2009
Well no s—! The girl was secretly videotaped naked. That’s pretty f’ed up and disturbing. I’d be freaked out if someone did that to me. How else was she supposed to act? She handled it a lot better than I would have.
12:19 am on September 12th, 2009
During the Oprah show today, I mentally replaced the image of Erin with that of my daughter…it made me sick and it really hurt. Jeez, I feel the Andrews family pain.
I sure wish that the perps could be caught and dealt with to the fullest extent of the law.
Bless Erin and her family and big hopes go out to them for some kind of satisfactory closure.
2:10 am on September 12th, 2009
Hey SJ i replaced her Image with your daughter too and it was HOT!!
blah blah blah grow up
6:36 am on September 12th, 2009
“Well no s—! The girl was secretly videotaped naked. That’s pretty f’ed up and disturbing. I’d be freaked out if someone did that to me. How else was she supposed to act? She handled it a lot better than I would have.”
LOL, “secretly videotaped.” C’mon people, get a clue. EA knew exactly what was happening. The only thing that is unclear is whether it was intended for private use by her and Jason Varitek/David Wright/someone else, or whether she initiated the internet leak.
11:27 am on September 12th, 2009
dude - I LOVE “the butler in the kitchen with an icepick” theory very, very much.