Christine Brennan Continues Her Erin Andrews Smarm Offensive

USA Today's Christine Brennan went on Howard Kurtz's unctuous TV show yesterday and explained away her underminey Erin Andrews comments, emphasizing that she has "always been concerned about Erin" and somehow outstripping all her male colleagues in patrician superciliousness.

Improbably, Brennan has emerged as the media's most obnoxious commentator on the Erin Andrews saga, outdoing even Mariotti and Whitlock. First, she came dangerously close to saying Andrews was asking for it, telling one sports radio show:

If you trade off your sex appeal, if you trade off your looks, eventually you're going to lose those. She doesn't deserve what happened to her, but part of the shtick, seems to me, is being a little bit out there in a way that then are you encouraging the complete nutcase to drill a hole in your room.

Then Brennan went on Kurtz's Reliable Sources yesterday (video below) to shake her head gravely and say "poor Erin Andrews" over and over. She claimed the above quote was taken out of context.

There's a soundbite there that's missing, Howie. I said, I want to have a long career. I was talking about myself. That was taken out of those clips. ... The first part of that, I was talking about myself, and that was taken out of the clip.

Then she talked about herself some more:

I've done this, as you know, for 28 years, and I talked, for example, in the interview how when I covered the Washington Redskins for the Washington Post, and if I said hello or gave a quick little hug to, say, a sportscaster who's a friend of mine, all the Redskins would talk to him about [was] was he dating me? So, what I said in a very, very kind way, very concerned about Erin — I've always been very concerned about Erin in this — I was talking about the pitfalls and the problems in this country today for women in sports media.

And then some more (this in the context of the Ben Roethlisberger sexual assault allegations and the media's naming of his accuser):

Yes, it troubles me. But after the week I've had, and I think of poor Erin Andrews, this is a whole different world, Howie, and what does it say about journalism in the 21st century?

Poor Christine Brennan. It seems she's found herself inside the media wringer for once and doesn't much like it. I have a hard time mustering much sympathy, though. She was clearly asking for this.

Too much nude coverage? [CNN]

Send an email to Tommy Craggs, the author of this post, at craggs@deadspin.com.

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