Plenty of news organizations aren’t looking good during the Erin Andrews trial, including her old employers at ESPN, and The New York Post is among them. The tabloid played a key role in spreading stalker Michael David Barrett’s video of Andrews undressing back in 2009, publishing three images from the video, with one on the cover, (and getting their reporters banned from ESPN appearances for a while in the process), but you won’t see that mentioned during their breathless coverage of the trial. What will you see? “Erin’s Naked Agony” splattered across Tuesday’s front page, complete with a photo of Andrews crying on the stand, a front page that’s taking plenty of heat:
This is bullshit @nypost. You shouldn't have done this to her. #victimshaming pic.twitter.com/AydIq2ZvTx
— Annie Heckenberger (@anniemal) March 1, 2016
Always classy @nypost adds to Erin Andrews' humiliation by splashing her on their front page. Canaries in cages refuse to dump on that rag.
— NoLonger (@thebigshotprof) March 1, 2016
It seems more than a little hypocritical to publish those photos and then publish a front page tearfully detailing their impact on Andrews. Interestingly enough, the Post came up in the trial Tuesday, with Marriott defense lawyers arguing that they and other media outlets that aired or published the images made the video release worse:
Defense attys arguing that media outlets like @nypost and @FoxNews made @ErinAndrews video release worse by publicizing it, not @Marriott
— Jason Lamb (@JasonLambNC5) March 1, 2016
It’s not surprising to see the Post go with sensationalist headlines, as that’s a large part of what they’re known for. (This is the paper that gave us “Headless Body In Topless Bar,” after all.) It’s also not wrong that they’re covering the trial; this is a legitimate sports media story, and the Post does do a fair bit on that beat. However, this headline and front page seem remarkably insensitive, and look like they’re exploiting Andrews’ testimony in as dramatic a way as possible, especially when you consider the significant role they played in spreading this video in the first place.
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