File this under “It Was Bound to Happen.”

A video purporting to show a nude Erin Andrews, the sexpot sideline reporter for ESPN, is being shopped to websites and gossip rags. The video is crude and appears to have been shot from behind a peep hole inside a hotel; clearly, Andrews has no idea she is being filmed.

The video is so creepy that even TMZ, the high ruler of celebrity sleaze, has said it will not purchase or publish it, calling the film “a clear invasion of privacy.” (When did TMZ get ethical on us?) Not that TMZ’s decision will make Andrews feel any better; the video has already been widely circulated online and is easily found through Internet search engines.

The notion that somebody would cut a hole in a wall and secretly videotape a woman as she undresses is disgusting. Whoever videotaped Andrews didn’t just humiliate her, I must assume they also stole her sense of security. How can Andrews, who travels around the country for her work, ever be comfortable in a hotel room again?

But a part of me knows that a scandal like this was a long time coming. Today, most female television anchors (especially the new ones) are solely used as sex objects. It was only a matter of time before some deranged pervert took their lusty fantasies too far.

Last year, newspaper columnist Mike Nadel took Andrews to task for “sauntering around the visiting clubhouse” while covering a Chicago Cubs game. “Her skimpy outfit — designed to accentuate her, um, positives — had players leering at her,” Nadel wrote. “Some made lewd comments under their breath. Others giggled like 12-year-olds.”

Andrews isn’t alone, of course. Former Fox Sports analyst Lisa Guerrero was ridiculed by sports fans for her clear ineptness and chastised the Times’ T.J. Simers as a broadcaster who “liked to have her picture taken wearing blouses that she had forgotten to button.” Guerrero didn’t help her case when she stripped off her clothes for Playboy.

The only thing stopping Jillian Reynolds, weather gal for Fox’s national NFL coverage, from a Playboy spread is her contract. But that didn’t stop her from appearing on Howard Stern’s radio show and sharing raunchy details of her love life.

In fact, Playboy.com is in the midst of conducting its annual “Sexiest Sportscaster” for 2009. Andrews won the “honor” last year.

The sexing up of female reporters isn’t limited to sports. In Los Angeles, KCAL-9 weather lady Jackie Johnson resembles a walking, talking Barbie doll with her body-hugging outfits. Google the name of KNBC’s scantily-clad weathercaster, Elita Loresca, and up pops steamy images of a photo shoot with FHM magazine. Ditto for FOX’s Lauren Sanchez and CBS’s Sharon Tay.

How about Channel 9’s Mia Lee? Please don’t make me describe her.

The worst part of it all is that these “reporters” demean the solid work of other female journalists. It’s possible to be attractive and professional at the same time, and Christine Devine, Pat Harvey, Hannah Storm and Michelle Tafoya are prime examples.

I’m not saying Erin Andrews deserved to be secretly videotaped nude, but we shouldn’t be surprised it happened either.

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Published: July 24, 2009 - Volume 8 - Issue 14