I have an observation. After Tiger Woods' accident the media seems to have become obsessed with him. First, they want him to speak about what happened. Great. I get that. When he releases a statement on his website and refuses to go public and the police don't press criminal charges, the media go bonkers with anger. Now, it seems, out of revenge, they are obsessed with bringing him down completely by chasing after mistresses from his past having decided they were the reason he landed himself in a tree.
Is this right for the media to make assumptions and then run with them without having the entire story? Is Tiger Woods' "extra-curriculars" really that important that we need to interview mistresses on just about every news network--- making sure that they support the running theory created by the media that Tiger was a big cheater and his wife had enough, and so he wrecked his car???
I just don't get it. Then the media wonders why people don't trust them. Right now they are being way too nosy for comfort. It's not like he's an elected official.
6 comments:
I highly disagree. You need to look at Tiger’s situation from the perspective of a Tiger Woods fan and a publicist, before claiming the media has gone too far and this is why people hate us.
First I bet the mistresses are pitching the media themselves because the Tiger could file a lawsuit if the mistresses were lying, and charge the media with defamation if they were tracking them down. If a mistress pitched me about this story, I would interview her and build a story
At this point Tiger is destroying his own image, not the media. Tiger has always held a clean image of an all-American athlete. His website statement is so vague and his fans are probably enraged about his dishonesty for refusing to speak publicly, it shows disgraced ethical judgement. Tiger is an idiot for basically saying it is my fault, now leave me alone. He is covering something.
Tiger should not pretend he does not owe the public the truth. Public figures are constantly under scrutiny, it is much safer to be forthcoming than to leave details to speculation. And it is possible to give an explanation of facts without revealing details that invade his privacy, the longer he sweeps his problems under the rug, the worse it will get for Woods.
Woods canceled interviews with police multiple times. And there have been few details from his publicist or authorities in Florida. There are only two things worse than whatever really happened outside Tiger Woods' house: speculation about what happened and the appearance of a cover up.
I think Tiger should speak with authorities and apologize just to be a loyal human being and prevent rumors from flying. He shouldn't blame the media for rumors, he should blame himself for not stepping up to plate. Tiger is leaving people to second guess the situation. It is safe to say that we are all human and we all make mistakes, importantly people need to be forthcoming and admit the truth because is the most ethical thing to do, even if it means dealing with authorities.
They are not treating Tiger like an elected official. They are treating him like a public figure. Tiger holds multi-million dollar endorsements with Nike, Gilette, etc - he won renowned golf tournaments, now he screwed-up, and we are suppose to pretend nothing happened, especially after he has been in the media millions of times for his victories? Give me a break, he is not admitting the truth!
I personally just don't care about people's private lives. If he has a mistress, that's his business- not ours.
i don't care if he has sex with all the bunny's in the playboy mansion either. I have personally lost a lot of respect for Tiger and so have many other people since this just proves he has low morales and values - he is not loyal to fans and those who support him. How can the media or any person respect someone if they don't respect themselves?
Tiger had more than a million chances just to simply say what happened instead of leaving his fans and others speculating - it just led to multiple controversies.
I doubt Tiger will be golfing for a long time. And guess what?
I guarantee he will blame the media for ruining his career.
I am enraged because he was involved in several philanthropic projects, he had several loyal fans, supporters, and was a highly-sought after athlete - then he screws over the world.
Now he is supposedly running to Sweden to escape from his problems. I guarantee the Swedish media will be sitting on his doorsteps lol.
Sadly the media must leverage celebrities and controversy because they are both factors that make a story newsworthy.
The story of Tiger Woods crashing his vehicle and his wife breaking out a window to save him sounded unbelievable from the very beginning. While lying usually makes difficult situations worse, it made sense that he was trying to keep some semblance of his personal life; it doesn't make him an idiot.
As a public figure who is hugely famous with millions in endorsement deals, Tiger has to accept that he is held to a higher standard and has to accept some lack of privacy as the price. However, he is still a human being with the same rights to a private life. Just because he is famous does not mean that he should have to give up a basic amount of personal space and decency.
There are many people being quoted about how bad Tiger is for what he's done and fellow golfers speaking badly about him, but Tiger has given countless hours of pleasure to his many fans and he has made a lot of money for a lot sponsors, television, and other golfers. This is the first mistake that he has made and he isn't a criminal. Why not give him some space now without all the judgements?
One of the things I've learned in this class is that just because something can be printed doesn't mean that it should be.
Now, this story definitely had to run, but it's time to let Tiger deal with a hurtful and difficult public mistake in the way that it should be dealt with: with his wife and family.
Nicole, I completely agree with you. The coverage of this story is completely overblown. Tiger's personal life is is exactly that, personal. He is a public figure because of his athletic prowess, not because he pursues the spot light. He is not a movie or TV star, or even a politician, his abilities on the golf course have made him a public figure; he seems to be someone that has always valued his privacy despite his stardom. It is really too bad that he can not get any privacy in a time when he and his family could really use it.
If we are going on ethical standards, sure, it is probably overblown. But there are many media outlets whose entire business is to invade public figures' privacy for a profit. Why do they continue to do this even if they are causing harm to their subjects? Because people like it and will pay for it. So until that changes, we will continue to see this type of "journalism."
If we are going on legal standards, even if we think he should have "personal time," he did forsake that as a person who is so publicly recognizable. He is not an elected official, but he also does not have the same legal privacy rights a completely private citizen.
Further, even though the coverage has been overblown, I wouldn't say it's not news at all. He was ticketed for careless driving, so he's not evading any sort of consequence. As someone who has been held out as a role model, it's important to ensure he adheres to certain social standards. Otherwise, he should not be acknowledged as such.
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