Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Tiger Woods cheats. World stops.

On the way back from dropping the kids off at school this morning, I found myself listening to two sexagenarian radio guys practically drooling over their microphones as they examined, in excruciating detail, every last aspect of Tiger Woods. They'd get more excited as they covered each phase of this so-called story: The accident, the allegations, the affair, the impending acknowledgment, etc.

I felt myself almost throwing up in my mouth a little at the sickening tone of the show, and came darn near pulling the car over in disgust. Instead I flipped on some tunes and continued my journey home.

Now that Mr. Woods has confirmed that he's cheated on his wife, the wires are burning with the so-called news. I still feel like throwing up in my mouth at the feeding frenzy of coverage and the ease with which so-called professional media folks slip into little more than sleaze-covered gossip.

At the end of the day, the guy cheated on his wife, and now it's up to him and his family to move on from this very human tragedy. It would sure be nice if the rest of us didn't spend so much time pushing for more details of the Tigergate Affair. It would sure be nice if we, as a society, learned to put sports in its proper place. The guy plays golf. Yes, he plays it better than anyone of his generation, and the focus that he brings to his game holds lessons that transcend the golf course.

But still, he plays a game for a living. He isn't G-d. And the world doesn't have to stop spinning simply because he screwed up in real life. Perhaps we might want to stop mounting folks like him on pedestals.

Or perhaps we'll simply never learn. The future - for him, for us and for other sports/entertainment demigods - probably holds more inexplicable, self-inflicted implosions, and more tempests masquerading as breaking news. And an increasingly ravenous global audience will continue to get off on this stuff. Makes me more than a little sad that this is the way it's become.

14 comments:

fredamans said...

Hey, no bad mouthing my soon to be hubby lol.
It happens to every one, I don't care who you are, and the media gets so bent when it is a celebutard.
Like anyone really cares.
Not to mention the wife from hell he is stuck to.... um, hello, she chased him and smashed the window with a golf club.
Can we say crazy needs a shrink?

I still like Tiger.

I don't care who he does.

JennyMac said...

Amen...

and since he admitted today that he had "transgression" perhaps we can all just move along.

On the care factor, Tigergate is very very low in my book. And it just proves that even with a uber gorgeous super model wife, things happen.

invisible said...

Story title :
Tiger's Wood.
Excerpts:
He used his driver. He was putting at the hole. He had a great backswing. He was a Tiger in bed.
He won the Ride-'er cup.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Mojo said...

I've never followed golf. But even I can see there's a larger-than-life aura around Tiger Woods. he may not just be the best of his generation, he may be the best ever.

But as I was getting my coffee this morning I heard with that pre-caffeinated half-an-ear that now there's a second love child who "wanted her story to be told" for... whatever reason. (As in "Beeyotch, I'm getting my 15 minutes too!")

But what was galling was the talking head was asking the magazine guy "when does this cross over from being gossip to being news". And the magazine guy basically says "as soon as the fact checkers vet it". He didn't use those words, but that's what he was saying.

Seriously? I was more interested in the possibility that his wife might be abusive than anything else. A high profile case of that kind would actually benefit men who are in the double-whammy position of being a male victim of domestic violence. there are far more of them than you'd imagine, but as hard as it is for a woman to come forward with a story, it's exponentially harder for a man.

So there may yet be some good to come from this whole circus, but not before the feeding frenzy is over. By the time the alleged "media" gets through with the story, any mention of a legitimate issue like that will be lost in all the mud slinging over who screwed whom.

Man I wish you or Maggie Dammit could get this assignment. If anyone could find the kernel of legitimate news in this you two could.

Like that's gonna happen.

Carolyn R. Parsons said...

Seriously..I wonder if we were listening to the same radio station...geez...he cheated, guys cheat, even billionaire golf players...he has a weakness, a character flaw that brought him to this point.

If he were my husband I might go after him with a golf club too...what he did was crazy-making...

BUT this isn't my business and I for one will be turning off radio shows that talk about this and ignoring the "stories" about it. It's not news, it's personal.

Breeze

Anonymous said...

Amen! The world will not stop spinning because Tiger had affairs. The world will not stop spinning because Oprah will no longer have a talk show. The world is not better because a freakshow decided to have eight babies and peddle them to the highest bidder. This is not news, people! The sooner the media realizes this and moves along, maybe we can do the same.

invisible said...

I was on Jalopnik.com , which is an automobile fan/news site.
They have a report/link to a chinese news story complete with CGI re-enactment. includes club swinging wife attack.
Funny yes?

David Edward said...

and sadly, somewhere a divorce lawyer is starting to drool.

Kay said...

I agree and WHY is it that the media orgazims on this stuff? Because people feed into it, they love it! So often I just want to SHOUT! Come on people! We are all just HUMAN! in good times and bad...HUMAN ALL THE SAME! You are me and i am you....HUMAN! gosh! P.S. just heard the radio talking about it and I think i threw up a little myself...

Gallow said...

Excellent Post!!

The worlds economy is doing crazy things.

Population/Energy/Ecology are huge issues.

There are people starving.

There are wars all over the place.

But what are today's head lines?

"Tiger Woods had an affair".

It isn't news, it's gossip.

I too turned the TV off this morning.

Jeannette StG said...

Thank you, America has this blind spot about sports people and moviestars - when is this country going to grow up from their adolescent craving for heroism?

I'm glad to see in this post that there are still journalists with integrity. The ones who are all over this story, are just as cheap as the 50% ones who are unfaithful to their spouse!

~j said...

amen! i've pretty much given up on tv/radio "news" shows. I gather information off the web where I can choose what I want to read about.

MB said...

I hate when the news media turns into the National Enquirer. Does anyone really think it's big news that a young, multimillion dollar golf pro cheated on his wife? I'm so sick of hearing all these stories which is why I've started watching more cartoons and less news. I'm much happier now. ;)

Nestor Family said...

Perfect post about this subject.