Tuesday’s report from Page Six of the New York Post regarding the photos of Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and New York Times reporter Dianna Russini raises plenty of fair questions moving forward.
There’s one important question moving backward. How did the Post get the photos?
Vrabel and Russini have separately said the photos do not show evidence of impropriety.
It’s highly unlikely that someone in Sedona, Arizona — two hours from the site of the recent NFL annual meeting in Phoenix — was bird watching and just happened to see Vrabel and Russini in a setting that could be plausibly characterized as questionable. Common sense suggests that someone was actively looking for evidence. Whether it was a freelancer who then sold the photos to the Post or whether it was someone the Post dispatched isn’t known.
Still, the photos were either harvested accidentally or by design.
There’s an intriguing nugget lurking in the shadows of this one. Did someone give the photographer or the Post a tip? If so, who? If so, why?
Accident or design. Spontaneous or planned.
Whatever the truth, there’s a potentially compelling story there as to how the photos came to be. There could also be a potentially compelling story as to any and all discussions that preceded the publication of the photos.
The Post may have had them for a week or more, and the Post got statements from Vrabel, Russini, and Russini’s employer before posting the story. Who made the call to publish?
And what, if anything, may have been done before they were published to prevent their publication?
