WJLA/ABC7 aired the first half of a four-part series on self-breast exams last night, and, as been noted all over the place, they showed 28-year-old Lauren Albright of Northern Virginia giving herself a full exam without blurring her breasts at all. Video of the first half of the report is embedded above, which does indeed include both close-up and medium shots of Albright’s breasts, so consider yourself warned if you are hesitant to watch it at work.

The idea here is obviously that demonstrating how to do self-breast exams in a clear and precise manner could help save lives. But of course, it’s also the start of the fall sweeps period, so the station is catching some heat for the appearance of showing naked boobs just to get ratings.

I was all set to defend the local news station for helping remind women how to do self-breast exams, but then I read this passage in the Washington Post’s coverage of this story.

The effectiveness of self-exams as an early cancer-detection method, however, has been questioned in recent years. The National Breast Cancer Coalition says medical studies suggest that the exams are not useful and can lead to “elevated anxiety, more frequent physician visits and unnecessary biopsies of benign lumps.”

The American Cancer Society says self-exams play only “a small role” in finding breast cancer. On its Web site, the society says “it’s okay not to do [a self examination] or not to do it on a fixed schedule.”

As someone who’s been giving herself regular self exams every month since she was 14, this seems like the biggest piece of news to come out of this whole bare breast controversy. It’s perfectly fine to show breasts in a clinical setting on the 11 o’clock news, but if self-exams are being rethought by the medical community, I’d be much more interested in seeing that story.