Erin Andrews, formerly of ESPN and currently of Fox Sports, took the stand on Monday as part of the civil trial she’s pursuing against the Nashville hotel where a man videotaped her undressing through her hotel room peephole.
Most will remember the case, both for the vulgarity of it, and the fact that the stalker was arrested three months later. Yet, what very few knew until Monday was that ESPN forced Andrews to do a sit-down interview about the incident --against her will-- as a pre-condition to allowing her back on the air.
From Deadspin:
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.)
Q: So did ESPN require that you give an interview?
“Yes. Because there wasn’t an arrest, because we didn’t know where this happened, my bosses at ESPN told me, “before you go back on air for college football we need you to give a sit-down interview.” And that was the only way I was going to be allowed back.
Q: Now, you did have the right to select who that interview would be done by, right?
I did. They were highly recommending it be GMA [Good Morning America], because ESPN and ABC are the same, and they wanted it on GMA. But like my dad had said the other day, I didn’t want it to be a two second thing where it’s like,
“Was this a scandal, or, was it not?” No, this is my life, and I feel terrible about myself, and we want to figure out how this happened. So, I didn’t want to do it, I didn’t want to be a part of it, and I just said, you know what, “I know because she’s very public about it, Oprah is a crime victim.” I talked to her producers, I told her I didn’t want to do it. But this was the only way I was going to be put back on air, so we went to the Oprah show.”
If true, this is monstrous behavior on the part of ESPN/ABC. Here you have a woman violated in the most non-physical way possible, begging not to do the interview and instead concentrate on catching the guy responsible for doing this.
Instead, her employers not only insisted she do the interview, but even went as far as to make the dreaded interview a pre-condition of her returning to work. All in the name of having a big ratings day on GMA.
So, moral of the story, next time you hear an ESPN/ABC talking head waxing about how we should treat female victims of abuse or assault, remember how they treated their own.
