Tisk Tisk Tiger, Shame on You America
Oh Tiger, what the hell man? You got caught, naughty boy. Now you’re no better than a long list of other pro athletes. Wonder if the ring you have to buy Erin will be bigger than Kobe’s wife. I’m disappointed in you as a role model, but still worship your ability in golf. May you toss out any prick who thinks he’s being funny at a tournament with a joke about your personal situation. I send you and your family my prayers for as quiet and peaceful a resolution as possible. Unfortunately, I don’t think the vultures at TMZ will be as lenient on you as ESPN has. If I were you, I would just come clean about all the details of the accident and some generalities about the other situation. Take the mill out of the rumors and cut your losses. Get it over with with all this time until the next golf season begins. But hey, what do I know? I’m just hoping your game is not affected by the mess.
As for you America, shame on you. The headlines for the past 4 days all over the place have been all about a professional athlete who crashed his car in his neighborhood. Headlines! I find it shameful we all know that Tiger paid a fine of $164 for the mess. $164 for a future of ridicule by second hand comedians and talk show hosts. It’s shameful we know that because no where in the headlines did we see how many Americans died in Iraq and Afghanistan over the same time period. Something tells me Mrs. Woods would rather read about her husband in the tabloids than read a letter that her husband perished in combat. America needs to get it’s priorities straight. According to what I could find online, the US lost somewhere between 11 and 446 soldiers during the month of November. I cannot find a solid number anywhere. Yet, it’s really simple to find out Tiger paid $164 and the fire hydrant has already been replaced. I heard someone on a regular news channel today criticize the sports media for not being so hard on Tiger to get the whole story. They were saying Tiger is kind of getting a pass. Perhaps he is from the sports media, but the tabloid media is having a field day. Maybe if the regular newsworthy media would stop calling the kettle black and cover our brothers, sisters, and neighbors giving their lives in the Middle East with the force they feel the sports world should give Tiger, the war would not be so ignored.
It’s just kind of sad that a professional golfer with a domestic issue, possibly some cheating on his wife is well, is more news worthy than fellow citizens perishing from existence in war. When will the media grow a pair and ask the hard questions of our former President and Vice President who have nothing else to do these days and learn why and what our soldiers are dying for. Maybe even ask the current administration what they know. Regardless, it should be the lead story of every news cast every day. Not celebrity gossip.
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:32 am
SO agree.
The Wife´s last blog ..Almost the shortest post ever to adequately summarize me.
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December 3rd, 2009 at 9:02 am
Right ON, Sir. Why GW and Dickey get a pass on what may turn out to be the biggest crimes ever perpetrated by elected officials is beyond me. And, just so you know what my real feelings are, Dickey ought to be stood in front of a wall and shot. Period.
As for Tiger – I hope there are no injuries that are going to affect his game. Beyond that, there is no aspect of his life that’s any of MY business.
lceel´s last blog ..100 word Challenge – Kaleidoscope
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December 3rd, 2009 at 8:18 pm
This situation should not be national news… period. Personally, while I can admire a sports figure for their prowess in their particular sport, I do not view any of them as role models for me or my children. There are so many more important issues we should be concerned with, and Tiger and his inability to keep his pants zipped is not one of them.
Tara R.´s last blog ..SkyWatch Friday ~ season 4, edition 21
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December 3rd, 2009 at 9:55 pm
I couldn’t agree more. I have no idea how things like this are newsworthy.
Momisodes´s last blog ..Life in plastic, it’s fantastic
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December 3rd, 2009 at 11:24 pm
I agree – Couldn’t have said it better myself…
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December 4th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Yeah, I think we are all guilty in some small way of fanning the media firestorm. With each click of the mouse and poke on the remote control, the powers that be know what we are tuned into as a collective culture. In the purest form of capitalism still left, headlines sell. Good piece man.
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December 5th, 2009 at 9:26 am
I couldn’t disagree with you more.
First of all, when famous people screw it it’s news. Always has been, always will be. Second, you’re just wrong about the media not covering Iraq and Afghanistan during this time. I work for a newspaper and I read a ton of coverage (all of it deserved) about President Obama’s decision to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan by 30,000. My paper in and of itself (despite being a mid-size 50,000 circ daily) publishes an updated number of U.S. military casualties twice a week. And I personally wrote a story about local people who have or have lost family and friends serving overseas.
So your claims that the media has somehow ignored the war are blatantly incorrect.
My draw to the Tiger story is due to the fact that he was somehow able to decline questioning from police, even with questions of possible domestic violence swirling. It’s a matter of fairness at that point. Would you and I have the opportunity to simply wave off a police investigation? No way. Yet Tiger got away with it. And the other issue is his empty pleas for privacy and his rebuke of the media. Did he want privacy when he was gracing the covers of all the magazines or raking in the endorsement money from Buick, Nike, Gillette, etc? I think it’s incredibly hypocritical that he uses the “evil” and “irresponsible” media to help lift himself up to fame and fortune, yet he lambasts them when they search for answers instead of sucking from Tiger’s power teat.
Tiger deserves all the tabloid headlines and criticism thrown his way in this instance, and to feel sorry for anyone but the children and his wife in this situation is a travesty.
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Hockeymandad Reply:
December 6th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
@Daddy Files, I am glad that your paper publishes that information. Unfortunately, you are in the minority. The national news media has not served it’s people properly in relation to the war in my opinion. They are not asking the hard questions because of the repercussions that would follow by the people that need to be asked. My problem with the Tiger story is not that it’s in the news, is that it was the top story when it broke. No story in national news should be more important than our nation at war. Period. Tiger did not have to give a statement to police because, by law his incident does not require it. In a single incident like his was, a formal statement is not required because it was not a criminal incident.
I do not think Tiger should not be in the tabloids, it is a very tabloid worthy story. I also do not disagree that there shouldn’t be some national news coverage, it sells papers. I just disagree of the importance it was given in the national media.
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Daddy Files Reply:
December 6th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
@Hockeymandad, Your frustration is misplaced and you’re blaming the wrong people for Tiger’s story being #1.
Most people get their news online these days. And the placement of stories on every media outlet is based on the number of hits it receives. So if you’re upset about the Tiger story getting top billing, don’t blame the media, blame the readers. If the readers wanted to see the stories about the war, they should’ve been clicking on those stories. But the sad truth is that’s not the case. The people wanted to read about Tiger and that’s why the stories have been on the front page. Plain and simple.
There’s too much emphasis on “blame the media” when it should be “blame the readers” who are driving the content.
Daddy Files´s last blog ..Truth
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December 6th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Hockeyman, I agree with you, I do not think there is anyone of us who has something in their closet that would make the “tabloids’ sell papers-except we are not famous…
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December 15th, 2009 at 9:45 am
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