A little help over here, please! Would someone — anyone — please, pull the plug on the Tiger Woods saga! There’s got to be someone who can help. I beg you, please!
I ask: Whose business is it — other than the family’s — to pry, investigate, break down, over-analyze and research this personal matter to such an extent? When a story of this nature leaves the confines of those affected, it’s not news, it’s gossip — pure and simple!
The media has to ask itself a basic question when deciding to run it: WWCRT? — Would Walter Cronkite report this? Has integrity been sacrificed for the sake of “over-the-backyard-fence” chatter?
Dare I say that our present day, chest-pumping-gesture-of-superiority generation has failed to progress, but has actually slid backwards in the area of decency, compassion and ethics in reporting the news? The line between hard-biting stories and non-essential fluff has been blurred to the point where headlines of ongoing wars share the same page as stories of an athlete’s infidelity.
Woods’ apology — dictated by a demanding public with both an enormous and erroneous sense of entitlement — did little to appease a cynical media which expects someone to be contrite on its terms ... not on the apologist’s. Sorry, that’s not the way it works. You either accept an apology or you don’t — and move on. It can’t get any simpler than that.
The deluge of “talking heads” have had a field day since Tiger’s press conference by issuing proclamations as to what he “should have” done. “Shoulda,” “coulda” and “woulda” are nothing more than tools of the trade for Monday morning quarterbacks. Unsolicited opinions gussied up as fact are being thrown at us faster than governmental tax-hikes.
The whole issue revolves around the fact that society’s own self-made expectations (of Tiger’s character) have met disappointment. He’s being castigated by adults for failing to live up to an image of perfection that they had bestowed upon him. An image that they themselves are incapable of achieving. I’ve heard comments that he’s let our youth down as a role model. Is that the case? Is it really a role model implosion or a vicarious adult-fantasy gone awry?
Why is there more attention on Tiger as opposed to rap artists and rock stars whose lives of infidelity, violence and drug abuse are much worse? Maybe, it’s because the adults are more concerned with their own role models than those of their children’s. It’s much easier to look noble when we pretend our concern is for someone else.
I’m not going to dwell on this anymore because I know what you’re thinking: If I’m so vehement about the on-going stories about the Tiger Woods deal, then why am I writing one myself? And if there was no room for “fluff” in the news, my column would never get published. Good question and a valid point.
I’ll tell you what: I’ll schedule a press conference in about a month or so to explain — and possibly apologize — for this article. Until then, keep talking about it ... please.
Happy birthday, mom. I miss you.
And that’s the way it looks from the Valley.
Tom Valley is a Medina resident. His column appears every Thursday. Contact him at tvalley@rochester.rr.com.
