Leave Tiger Alone!

Poor Tiger Woods. He’s in the middle of a perfect PR tornado. He’s a golf mega-star who is very careful to protect his squeaky clean image, but unfortunately, he also seems to have been exposed as a philanderer. Now the media is literally beating his image to death with it.

Tiger’s perfect PR image began to unravel after a strange car accident in front of his own home, where, in the wee hours, he hit a fire hydrant and then a tree and was injured in the process. It seemed his wife had to use a golf club to get Tiger out of the car, and he appeared to be rendered unconscious from his accident. Police said Tiger was not intoxicated. Question arose immediately. What was he doing leaving the house at such an hour? Why did he seem to be traveling at such a rate of speed pulling out of his own driveway to cause such damage to his car and such injuries to his face? How was it so convenient his wife had a golf club in her hand to be able to use it to get him out of the car? Was there an argument? Did she beat him with the golf club? Was there an argument over an affair? The questions came up and grew exponentially. Unfortunately, Tiger responded in a rather rational way, taking responsibility for the event but saying nothing any substance.

The media of course wasn’t satisfied and continued to dig. Of course, gossip lovers were in heaven as this story just continued to feed on itself and grow bigger with each day. Things got really bad when a voice mail which appeared to be from Tiger left for “another woman” seemed to confirm that he was indeed playing around – no, not playing a round (of golf) – playing around. Despite the fact that the media continues to play the recording, admitting it has not been officially confirmed it was Tiger, Tiger suddenly admits to transgressions and asks for privacy . OK, I will admit, that voice mail message sounds exactly like Tiger, so let the media frenzy begin!

Tiger Woods is an amazing golfer, clearly one of the best ever. But it should be no surprise to anyone that his personal life is not perfect. No one can make that claim. But the media coverage of this matter is getting a little crazy. Everyone is falling over themselves in order to help smear Tiger’s image, almost enjoying the fact that he managed the whole situation very badly. Tiger’s fault here is that he had the nerve – the nerve! – to expect that he can have a private life (note sarcasm). Sadly, in this day and age, there is no such thing as a private life, especially for the famous. But really, I think Tiger has been beaten a little too much over this issue. The media, who was instrumental in building Tiger’s image into a golf god, is now working overtime to damn him to the depths of the hell reserved for famous people who make errors in judgment. I can understand a gossip paper such as the National Inquirer making a big deal over this, but now all the major networks are keeping this story in their leads. It really doesn’t belong there.

Tiger’s big mistake was not by cheating, but by trying to cover up the matter when it was clear that the car accident was going to bring personal matters out into the open. OK, it’s out into the open, now it’s time to leave Tiger alone and let him patch up the mess in private. And it’s time for the media to go back to reporting real news about things that really matter – the economy, the war, politics, etc. and leave the gossip reporting to the National Inquirer.

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