Tim Worstall

October 03, 2009

The FBI always gets its man: or so it is said. They certainly think they have got their man in Michael David Barrett. They arrested him in Chicago last night as he got off a plane from Buffalo over the case of the Erin Andrews videos.

A Chicago-area man arrested at O’Hare airport who is accused of taping surreptitious nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews was due to appear in federal court late Saturday morning, authorities said.

Michael David Barrett was arrested Friday night as he arrived on a flight from Buffalo, N.Y., the FBI said. He faces federal charges of interstate stalking for taking the videos, trying to sell them to celebrity Web site TMZ and posting the videos online, the FBI said in a statement.

For those who are a little behind the gossip curve: Erin Andrews is a

professional sports reporter working for ESPN. Her looks and figure have absolutely nothing at all to do with her employment, of course, although they did have a lot to do with Michael Barrett surreptitiously filming her through a hotel room peephole. At the time that the Erin Andrews peephole video thing all kicked off, when a tape of her naked was released onto the ‘net, I have to admit I was a little puzzled. Yes, she’s good looking and yes, she was naked, but finding good looking women who are prepared to go naked for the camera these days is no biggie. We’ve acres of magazine racks dedicated to them and yet more tens of thousands of films and videos are made every year.

With the arrest of this Michael David Barrett things are becoming a little clearer. He was apparently stalking her across the country, made at least 8 videos in at least two cities: at least, that’s what the FBI think he did. He also tried to sell the videos to the gossip site TMZ who promptly informed the authorities, thus the arrest (how about that eh, a gossip site with morals?). Clearer that is, if you separate out the two great motivating factors for most of us human beings, lust and money.

The point was not to take pictures of a popsy, not even to take film of a naked popsy. That is indeed simple these days: the point was to take film of someone naked which would be worth a lot of money.

Which leads on to an interesting question: what would be the most valuable picture in American journalism right now? David Letterman in the shower perhaps? After all, it can’t just be because he’s rich, talented, famous and funny can it?