Stupid, naive or as calculating as a Clinton?

Back in the late 1970s or early 1980s, a member of the Ironton City Council told me he had attended a training session run by his employer. The topic of the session was dealing with news media. The one thing he remembered was a tape of someone talking to a TV reporter. The subject of the "interview" did not realize the camera was running, and its microphone caught everything he said.

You can figure out the moral of that story.

So how can a TV anchor be so stupid or naive in the Internet age? Or is she making up a story to cover up something she should have known better than doing?

CLEVELAND (AP) — Hustler Inc. said Thursday it will seek the dismissal of a lawsuit filed over the publication of a photograph of a TV newswoman who danced naked in a wet T-shirt contest.

Jeffrey Reina, a lawyer who represents the company, said Hustler Magazine published the photo in a news story and is protected by the First Amendment.

The lawsuit, filed by Catherine Bosley in late February in U.S. District Court, accuses Hustler and its parent, LFP Inc., both based in Beverly Hills, Calif., of copyright infringement.

It says Bosley obtained ownership of photos and videos of the contest following litigation in federal court and registered them with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2004.

Bosley was on vacation when the images were taken in 2003 at a Key West, Fla., bar. She resigned from WKBN-TV in Youngstown after images and video of her began showing up on the Web. She now works as an anchor/reporter for WOIO-TV in Cleveland. ...

Bosley won $250 in a tie for first place in the contest and has said she had not given anyone permission to use her picture. She has testified that she would not have participated in the contest if she knew pictures would turn up on the Web.

Riiiiiight. Was she really that unthinking or naive, or does she think we're gullible?

It doesn't seem to have hurt her career that much, although an anchor slot for a morning network news show may be out of reach now.

I know there is no expectation of privacy in a public place, but it's a shame that a person can't fall on his backside on an icy sidewalk without the possibility of it being on the Web for all to see.