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http://deadspin.com/erin-andrews-espn-forced-me-to-go-on-tv-and-talk-about-1762058985
More behind the link, including Q & A. ESPN wanted her to go on Good Morning America (ABC) to talk about it prior to letting her back on the air after she was videotaped through a hotel peephole while undressed. She ended up agreeing to the interview, but with Oprah instead.
Keep it classy, ESPN.
Update [March 7]:
Keep in mind, this settlement is against the hotel chain and employee, not ESPN.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/erin-andrews-jury-set-deliberate-75-million-lawsuit/story?id=37460110
http://deadspin.com/erin-andrews-espn-forced-me-to-go-on-tv-and-talk-about-1762058985
Fox broadcaster Erin Andrews took the stand today in the trial over her civil suit against the Nashville hotel where she was videotaped undressing through her hotel room peephole. In one of the most frightening bits of testimony in a case full of them, Andrews explained how ESPN—her employer at the time—forced her to discuss the issue on national television, against her will, before she was allowed to return to her broadcasting duties.
On July 16, 2009, video of the naked Andrews was posted to the website NSFW POA. Nearly three months later, on October 2, 2009, Michael David Barrett was arrested for creating the video. Barrett eventually pleaded guilty to interstate stalking, and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Fighting unsuccessfully to hold back tears as she answered questions from her lawyer today, Andrews testified that “everybody” thought she orchestrated the video as a publicity stunt: “Probably for like three months, everybody thought it was a publicity stunt. The front page of the New York Post said ‘ESPN Scandal.’ To Fox News and CBS, everybody put up that I was doing it for publicity and attention, and that ripped me apart.”
Before Barrett was arrested, that “everybody” apparently included her employer ESPN, who didn’t stand fully behind her and forced her to re-live the trauma in front of millions, according to her testimony. (An ESPN spokesperson “respectfully” declined comment.)
More behind the link, including Q & A. ESPN wanted her to go on Good Morning America (ABC) to talk about it prior to letting her back on the air after she was videotaped through a hotel peephole while undressed. She ended up agreeing to the interview, but with Oprah instead.
We went, I wanted nothing to do with it. I was in the office, or her green room, and I was sitting there and I was just bawling at my parents. “It’s Oprah Winfrey, how do you not want to see her?” And I was just freaking out, and I just said “I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do this. I just want to go back to college football. I don’t want to talk about what happened to me, why can’t I just be normal? Like, why can’t I go back?”
I think her producer had heard me crying, and all of a sudden in walked Oprah, in her slippers, and her butterfly eyelashes. I didn’t have time to get up out of the chair, and she walked over to me, and I was hysterical. And she said, “I’ve got you, you’re safe here. I’ll take care of you.” And I did the interview.
Keep it classy, ESPN.
Update [March 7]:
Via The Associated Press -- Jury awards $55M to Erin Andrews in Lawsuit over nude video taken at hotel.
Keep in mind, this settlement is against the hotel chain and employee, not ESPN.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/erin-andrews-jury-set-deliberate-75-million-lawsuit/story?id=37460110
The jury has awarded Erin Andrews $55 million in her civil lawsuit over the secret recording and release of a video showing her naked during a hotel stay.
The sportscaster's original suit asked for $75 million from the owner and operator of the Nashville, Tennessee, hotel where she was staying, and Michael David Barrett, the stalker who used a hacksaw to tamper with her room's peephole and record the video in 2008.
The jurors took photos with Andrews after the amount was announced, and she signed autographs, according to reports from inside the courtroom.
The jury found Barrett to be 51 percent at fault and required him to pay out more than $28 million. West End Hotel Partners, which owns and operates that Nashville Marriott at Vanderbilt University, was found to be 49 percent at fault and asked to pay out more than $26 million.
West End Hotel Partners has said Barrett's criminal actions were his responsibility, not theirs. Barrett was convicted in criminal court of stalking Andrews and sentenced to two and a half years in prison.