On Oct. 7, Deadspin published photos, text messages and voice mails it said it had obtained by paying a third party it did not name. Mainstream outlets jumped on the story, including “Today,” the most public of all forums. The National Football League announced that it would investigate. And now some of Favre’s sponsors are wondering whether the gunslinging quarterback’s image has been sacked for a big loss.

Having covered a number of pro sports, I’ve seen plenty of athletes’ anatomies in locker rooms, so I initially had little interest in looking at Deadspin for some of Favre’s supposed self-portraits. But after circling the site for a few days, I had to know what all the fuss was about and finally clicked on the link.

I was not alone. By the end of the week 3.2 million had stopped in for a peek, a fivefold increase over Deadspin’s usual weekly audience of 600,000 people. I asked Mr. Daulerio whether the business deal he had cut with whoever had the photos  along with publishing the blog posts without the consent of the source  was worth it.

“I say this with some reluctance, because I don’t like to think of it as a business deal, but yes, it worked out very well for the site. I knew if everything played out right for us, there would be lots of traffic and that it would be pretty great for us in the long term as well,” he said in a phone call.

While we were not the first people to use the Internet to look at another person’s privates, something more pernicious and tawdry was under way. Newsrooms all over America have ethics policies they fuss over and debate, but all those strictures and best intentions are really beside the point once a sensational story rings the bell.