Yesterday, Rick Pitino held a press conference during which he chastised the media for their coverage of the situation between himself and Karen Sypher. If you are unaware of the circumstances, you can read all the sordid details in Sports Illustrated, but to sum up, she claims he raped her six years ago, while Pitino says it was consensual and she attempted to blackmail him. The police have filed no charges against Pitino and in fact, Sypher is being charged with attempted extortion. With all the details having come out months ago you would think the story would be dead but it resurfaced yesterday when the Metro Police released the tapes of Sypher's allegations to detectives.

With the tapes now public - they were aired on local news stations - Pitino called a press conference to castigate the media for their coverage of the entire situation. The consensus among the media is that he should have never held a press conference to begin with.

Eric Crawford of the Courier-Journal wrote, "He still made a mistake with this news conference, because those videos were only of limited interest in the city of Louisville. Nobody nationally cared...Pitino turned a local story into a national one today. And he put some sound bytes out there that are sure to reverberate for as long as Larry Bird not walking through that door." The key sound byte Crawford's referring to is when Pitino mentioned Ted Kennedy: "Everything that's been printed, everything that's been reported, everything that's been breaking in the news on the day Ted Kennedy died is 100 percent a lie, a lie." Pitino has been raked over the coals in the blogosphere for that gem - especially since during the original press conference he referenced 9/11.

Should Pitino have called the press conference? Probably not. It just drew more attention to a story he wants to go away. But to think this wouldn't have become national news if he hadn't is simply naïve. If you don't think the national news would run with the video of Karen Sypher telling a detective that Pitino threatened her and said, "...your boys will be in concrete and your family and you..." then you haven't watched much news recently. The media can't pass up a story like this, especially when it's on video. At the very least the tapes would have invaded the blogosphere, which is approaching the reach that the mainstream media has.

Pitino's message has been largely ignored by the media and to some extent, that's understandable. The initial reaction was to question why he called the press conference in the first place. It's also difficult to have a ton of sympathy for Pitino because none of this would have happened if he hadn't had this "indiscretion" six years ago. And on top of all that, Pitino delivered his message of disdain for the media to ... the media. That's like chumming the water before you go swimming.

But just because it's difficult to embrace the message from Pitino doesn't mean it's not a good one.

"It's a pretty sad day and look I understand your business ... I understand the competitiveness of it," he said. "What I don't understand is why you keep fostering this behavior." Pitino also asked fans to ignore the coverage by changing the channels and skipping the articles written. If it weren't my job, I'd listen to his advice.

While the coverage I've seen (both local and national) does preface the videos by saying Pitino hasn't been charged with anything and usually ends with the mention that Sypher is being charged with extortion, it still doesn't justify the airing of the videos. This story was covered months ago and this video doesn't add anything to the story. There is no breaking news here - simply new video of an old case. I'm not saying this whole story should be swept under the rug, but can't we wait until there's a public trial to report on this? Clearly fans are interested in this sort of salacious story, but shouldn't there be a higher standard from the gatekeepers?

Personally, I didn't mind when ESPN didn't report that Ben Roethlisberger was being accused of rape since law enforcement wasn't pursuing the case. I wish the WWL would consistently refrain from covering unsubstantiated allegations, but ESPN aired the video of Sypher. At this point it should be noted that prosecutor David Stengel has called Sypher's allegations "void of credibility," but that didn't stop the media from airing the video.

John Clay of the Lexington Herald-Leader questioned Pitino's mental toughness after his press conference: "If Rick Pitino is cracking under the pressure now, how's he going to handle it when the real shouting starts? How's the Louisville basketball coach going to react when the creative student bodies across the college basketball landscape begin chanting "Ka-ren Sy-pher, Kar-en Sy-pher"? What's he going to do when they display blown-up replicas of New York tabloid covers? Or when they throw unmentionables on the floor? Or when they combine their brains with their Sharpies to produce not-for-prime-time signs?"

Pitino will be just fine. I'm sure he has handled his fare share of heckling. It will be more brutal this time around but that's not why Pitino was so upset. Pitino wants this whole mess to play out in trial as it should, but by airing these videos the media is capitalizing on the public's thirst for scandal and putting Pitino on trial in the court of public opinion.