With the recent news that ESPN MLB analyst Steve Phillips admitting to having an affair with a 22-year old staffer named Brooke Hundley, it is just another example of an ESPN staffer who has their image tarnished by doing a sexual act with someone related to the company.
The real question is, "When did ESPN get to the point where we followed these types of stories?" Bob Biscigliano of Detroit4Lyfe has posted his timeline of ESPN staffers and personalities who were caught up in some inappropriate behaviour.
However, if we are to take notes, most of these stories have come up in the recent 3-5 years history. Why you may ask? Well, that's around the same time that the blogopshere started to blow-up and Deadspin started to take notes.
The major factor with the creation of new media is that these stories cannot be kept "hush-hush" anymore.
For those people saying that these workers at ESPN are completely out of line, to play's Devil's advocate, what happens if blogs started to cover your workplace? I have a feeling that they would be digging stuff up as well. I'm not condoning what some ESPN staffers have done but there is always an issue when working for a high-profile location.
In a way, I really do not care for these types of stories and at some level feel badly for the individuals involved. Everything in today's society becomes public-domain and at some point, we can know anything about anyone at anytime. The loss of privacy has been ever present and in the end, the question is when does it stop?
When did ESPN become XXXSPN?
