CBS Discusses "Serious Violation" Of Erin Andrews' Privacy By Airing Video In Which Her Privacy Is Violated

Still want to see that Erin Andrews video? One media outfit got its hairy palms on a clip and aired it this morning: CBS's Early Show.

The segment is called "Naked Viral Video Scheme," a title precision-engineered to scare the bejesus out of your parents, which is pretty much CBS News' guiding philosophy, anyway. The video of Andrews has been tastefully blurred and is not the least bit exploitative, I guess, because the report is essentially a warning that technology has reached a point where even you might be subjected to the indignities of having tastefully blurred, totally non-exploitative naked video of yourself air on network television. Here, via Media Matters, is a transcript. You can watch the report below.

CHEN: Well, it is many women's worst nightmare: having a peeping tom taking pictures of you. It just happened to a very popular sportscaster. Now, that video has gone viral, and she is fighting back. CBS News science and technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg has the details.

SIEBERG: This video purportedly shows 31-year-old Erin Andrews changing clothes in a hotel room. Her attorney says the popular ESPN sideline reporter was secretly videotaped through a peephole, or camera, planted in the room.

SIEBERG: Does this incident surprise you in any way?

CHRIS FALKENBERG (president, Insite Security): Oh, it doesn't surprise me at all. This equipment has been available for many years. Cameras are incredibly small. The technology is highly miniaturized. So it's not that difficult to place a camera in an area where no one would ever imagine it.

SIEBERG: Andrews intends to seek legal action against the person who made the videotape, but that could be difficult.

MIKE FRANCESA (radio host): Who knows when this happened exactly? Do they have any proof exactly where and when this happened?

SIEBERG: While the Andrews video has been pulled in recent days from websites, including YouTube, hackers quickly set up bogus web pages claiming to host the footage. Someone searching for the video clicks on a fake web page, and is told the browser's pop-up blocker is preventing the video from playing. The user is then fooled into downloading malicious software, also known as malware. It's the latest attempt by hackers who use online temptation to try to take over a computer. Daniel Sieberg, CBS News, New York.

So, hilariously, what began as an earnest look at all this fancy new perv-enabling technology turned into a PSA for all those potential masturbators in the Early Show's audience. And then CBS trotted out some legal analyst named Lisa Bloom so she and co-host Julie Chen could shake their heads gravely about how this video represents a "serious violation of privacy" and "a woman's worst nightmare," though not so serious or nightmarish that CBS would decide against airing the video at all.

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Fox News, CBS air clips of peephole video of ESPN's Erin Andrews [Media Matters]