True Confessions: Tiger Woods and the Media Blitz

Tiger Woods has re-emerged from his secret rehab hide-away, looking miserable and giving us another apology for his behavior, this one with some face time, instead of just a press release in absentia. Of course there was a media buzz starting a day before when the news spot was scheduled. There was a female presenter telling us ahead of time that this is unlikely to satisfy all the women out there who are angry with Tiger for his philandering, thus reminding women that they should be angry.

Admittedly, Woods is a celebrity and thus fair game for news, but this comes across more like something else. And are fans really that angry with Woods, or is it the media? Woods has always had that squeaky clean image, but is it really a surprise to fans that he has a different private life behind it? Is that much of his fan base women? Why is their opinion important?

Maybe golf fans are more disappointed than the general public, but most people seem to be reacting more to the poor press than to the news of Tiger’s character failings. There was no move by the companies behind Woods endorsement deals until the press sought them out and suggested they end the deals. All of which leads to the question of why the press has behaved this way. After all, it looks like Tiger Woods may be the victim of domestic abuse. Regardless of his attempts to keep the details private, the State of Florida went on to investigate the incident in which it looks as if his wife Elin may have assaulted him in the presence of their children. If this were a female golfer who was assaulted by her spouse, would the press reaction have been the same?

It almost looks like this is an attempt by someone to teach Woods a lesson. It’s unclear what the lesson is about—arrogance, maybe? Not enough deference to the media? Well, it does look like he’s been humbled. He’s going through the prescribed motions that have become standard for rehabilitating an image. However, it looks like he’s being pushed through this by the PGA. It almost looks like Tiger would rather quit golf and have his privacy.