If someone asked us to embed a slide show stuffed with over 70 pictures of local high school cheerleaders on this site, I'd probably decline the offer. Sure, it may generate some traffic and pad our stats, but I think posting pictures of local underage girls for the viewing pleasure of an anonymous online audience would be creepy, weird and wrong. That's why we stick with pictures of hot chicks over 18.
Anyway, it looks like Channel 5 management doesn't share my conservative view. From the u Local section of KOCO.com:
Braving heat and cold, from high school football games to pep rallies and competitions, these high school cheerleaders give it their all and keep the spirit of the cheer team, football team, and crowd elevated. See the best cheerleader spirit photos shared on u local, then share your own.
Attention all perverts, creepers, and sex offender squatters living down by the river. If you're ever in the mood to cycle through photo after photo after photo after photo of local high school girls showing their "cheerleader spirit," KOCO.com is the place for you. Plus, you can read about a two-headed cat! Who doesn't like that!
Wait a second, that's not entirely true. The cat actually has two faces and not all — if any — of the girls pictured on KOCO are what we'd call "local." Just look at these two pics, for example:
Unless Weatherford High School renamed itself Clinton East over the summer or this odd historian established a La Salle High School for Cheerleaders underneath the Heavener Runestone, those girls are not Oklahomans. In fact, there are virtually no references to Oklahoma high schools, mascots or uniforms on the KOCO u Local site.
That makes you wonder why Channel 5 posted all the pictures of nubile young cheerleaders. Is it nothing but a clever ruse designed to inflate KOCO.com traffic statistics, and in the process, allow them to boast about page views and charge more for their online advertising? Or is it just a simple mistake made by incompetent management? I'd say a little of both.
It's no secret that publishing pictures of pretty girls helps drive, generate and keep traffic coming to website. I mean you are at The Lost Ogle, right? I think we did publish something called Hot Girl a Day in the Month of May (twice), but we're not the only ones. The local mainstream media does it, too. For example, OPUBCO publishes an annual swimsuit issue and even KFOR has a random slide show of Ms. Universe contestants.
That being said, the girls we write about and drool over are grown-ups. Taking 70 images of "local" high school cheerleaders — who, by the way, probably have no clue they are pictured on a news website in Oklahoma City — and posting them on your website to increase traffic is just tacky and dumb. The photos don't even have to be explicit, risqué or inappropriate. Hell, I feel uncomfortable having two of them on the site right now. Then again, I needed something to make sure everyone clicked that "read more" button. You got to keep that internet traffic flowing.
