Keller @ Large: Erin Andrews Verdict Should Send A Message

BOSTON (CBS) - The lawsuit filed by TV sportscaster Erin Andrews against a stalker who videotaped her nude in her hotel room from an adjoining room and posted it on the internet, and the hotel where it happened, ended Monday with a $55 million verdict in favor of Andrews. And because this case was so widely publicized, we can hope that everyone who hears the news will take away some important lessons.

If you saw her testimony and followed the story, you know that in the eight years since this crime occurred, Andrews life has been torn apart, not just by the creep who did this and the negligent hotel owners, but by a culture that enables voyeurism, casual cruelty, and grotesque invasion of privacy. Bad enough that the repeat sex offender who shot the video did what he did, and that the foolish, careless hotel employees set him up to do it. For that, they richly deserve to go broke.

But what about the animals who continue to torture poor Andrews?

''This happens every day of my life,'' she testified. ''Either I get a tweet or somebody makes a comment in the paper or somebody sends me a still video to my Twitter or someone screams it at me in the stands and I'm right back to this. I feel so embarrassed and I am so ashamed.''

They're the ones who should feel that way. And since they can't be sued, maybe it's up to us - the people sitting next to the hecklers, the mothers and sisters of the jerks who think this sort of thing is funny.

Even the greedheads who run websites that allow this abuse – maybe we need to use our power to shame, revile and ostracize the perps.