On Tuesday morning's First Take, in the first hour (at about the :39 minute mark), many readers alerted us to what transpired. And what happened, friends, was Bonnie Bernstein momentarily forgetting that she was wearing a skirt on television, and when she adjusted herself, well, let's just say that the world got to know Bonnie a little better than she would've liked.

At last, photographic evidence has arrived. And you can see it for yourselves, in all its pink satin glory, after the jump ...

Photo: Courtesy of superiorpicscelebrityforum.com (Whatever that is...)

That's the question posed by MarketWatch columnist Jon Friedman, who gives the WWL a thorough Bissingering based on the recent "lowbrow or boorish behavior" of some of ESPN's talent. Specifically, the incidents involving Jemele Hill, Dana Jacobson, and Bonnie Bernstein, respectively. Friedman's piece, titled "ESPN: The sports leader in embarrassment" goes after Senior Vice President and Executive Editor John Walsh for an explanation to the recent spate of inappropriateness coming out of Bristol.

Walsh answered carefully, explaining that he feels all of the incidents were handled appropriately and that, considering the enormous amounts of media content they push out, three incidents are not so bad.

"We'd rather the scoreboard says none," Walsh said. "But if the scoreboard says three (examples), we endure." He called them "three separate instances" and added: "Trying to group them together, I think, would not be a wise thing for you."

Friedman disagrees. In his story he writes, "In the news business, journalists will chalk up something out of the ordinary as an aberration. But when it happens twice, we wonder if it is a pattern. By the third time, it can reasonably be called a trend" and "ESPN rejects the idea that there is a pattern of recklessness in its ranks, but I'm not so sure."

Yes, that ESPN is contributing to the collective dumbing-down of our society with its lowbrow humor and boorish behavior. Welcome to the new media landscape.

Update: ESPN VP Of PR Josh Krulewitz sent this comment to Deadspin about Friedman's column:

"Obviously we disagree with the premise of an ESPN trend. As we said, the three incidents in the article were very unfortunate, yet unrelated. Mistakes happen across our industry and others. We tend to be the focus given the large amount of content we produce and the more than 1,000 personalities we employ. What's important is, when situations arise, we take them seriously and address them."

I guess they only address these issues with the women.

ESPN: The sports leader in embarrassment [MarketWatch]

Sometimes we wonder if in 25 years we'll have Godwin's Law for inappropriate comments about suicide bombers and/or Osama bin Laden. Bernstein — appropriately! — compared high school basketball stars to Palestinian suicide bombers. Makes sense!

"On the June 25th broadcast of the popular morning sports talk radio show "Mike and Mike", the hosts invited Bonnie Bernstein (also an ESPN reporter) to talk about how basketball players growing up through middle school and high school are programmed to not want to pursue a college career, because they are pursued by everyone and their parents to make millions of dollars instead.

At this point Bernstein decided to drill the point home, she then likened this situation to how Palestinian children are programmed to become suicide bombers, as this is the only life they ever know.

This interview took place around 8.15 AM CST. Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg did not comment and remained silent. Their silence may be interpreted by listeners, at best, as an indication of tolerance, or at worst, as an indication of agreement."

Why do we imagine Greenberg having the same face Mike Myers had when Kanye West made his George Bush comment? Of course, Kanye might have had a small point, and Mike Myers is Canadian. Whatever that means.

Anyway, Bernstein apologized rather quickly, though, oddly, she apologized for bringing politics into a sports discussion rather than for what she actually said. Oh well.

By the way, we enjoyed this angry post, which referred to her as "Dr. Bonnie Bernstein." That's awesome.

(Full disclosure: Bonnie Bernstein, oddly, came to our book party. She was very nice, and was not wearing a head scarf.)

Michael Silver at SI.com lets Bonnie tell her own story, and I'm convinced: the woman is just way too talented and driven to be doing sideline reporting. So while we'll miss her, along with her scarves, her hats, and her ability to draw profanity out of Roy Williams, we're glad she's moving on to bigger and better things.

Banned in Boston - For This Week [Boston Sports Media Watch]
The (Faulty) Rumor Mill That Is Bonnie Bernstein [Deadspin]
Stepping off the sidelines [SI.com]

Anyway, the whole Interweb has been abuzz with ultimately refuted rumors after Bonnie Bernstein announced she was leaving CBS. (A retraction of all the rumors can be found here.) We think Bernstein is a fine enough reporter, does her job well, wears appropriately funny hats ... no real complaints here. But since she's leaving, rumors are popping up.

We feel sorry for Bernstein, who has done her job at a high level for some time now and still can't leave it without people tossing around "who's-she-sleeping-with?" stories. After all, we're still waiting for those "who's James Brown porking?" stories, now that he has left FOX for CBS. 'Tis life in the land of funny hats, one supposes.

Bonnie Bernstein Diary [BonnieBernstein.com]

(UPDATE: Scott's Shots at Boston Sports Media has reiterated that says the rumors he has been hinting at are completely false.)

(SECOND UPDATE: More media outlets have printed corrections or retractions, realizing they jumped on a bandwagon that had no wheels here. So we're clear, right? OK?)