Why is the media acting like Tiger Woods is the only athlete that has affairs when we all know most athletes and politicians have affairs.
Why is the media and everybody so hypocritical.
First, its because the way in which it came to light is "exciting" to the media, the mysterious auto accident, etc, and that sells. Also, he has a enjoyed a mostly squeaky clean public persona, and the average person had aspirations that he was above all of the downfalls and foibles of so many professional athletes and public figures.
And for the most part he is. But because of this new information, it is his turn in the cross-hairs, until it ceases to suit the media.
The Tiger Woods Saga goes on. About 98% of the story is rank speculation at this point. The fact is only a handful of people know what happened the night of the wreck or what he's been up to while tom-cattin' around, and none of them have much to say on either topic.
But Tiger's a celebrity and that means people will leap to the conclusions they want, taking care only to avoid the attention of lawyers bearing defamation and libel suits. Beware of suits with suits! That's about the only rule. The only thing we like more than creating celebrities, sometimes out of the most meager raw materials, is destroying them for having failed to meet our standards for celebrities.
So who cares what really happened or who Tiger's cheated with? Facts be damned! This is a morality play now.
Absent facts, the whole thing becomes like a Rorschach inkblot test designed to reveal the mysterious inner workings of the zeitgeist. The actual material doesn't mean much, but our reactions tell us a lot. since the subject matter is mostly about marital relations and domestic violence, those are what we learn about from people's reactions to the tedious saga of the Lady with the Sand Wedge and the Tiger.
We've had the standard-issue misrepresentations of domestic violence by the likes of Slate. And we've had Saturday Night Live making light of domestic violence against men. no surprise there; popular culture seems better than it used to be, but violence against men by women is still almost invariably depicted as at least acceptable and often an affirmative good. And often enough, it's played for laughs, as with SNL.
But there's also an article in a mainstream newspaper (Philadelphia Daily News, 12/4/09). It's an op-ed by attorney Christine Flowers that points out that, for example, even if Woods has committed adultery, that doesn't entitle his wife to attack him with a golf club. after all, every perpetrator of DV has an excuse for doing it. "He said I looked fat!" "She's getting too friendly with another guy!" Isn't our whole opposition to DV based on the assumption that violence is not an acceptable response, regardless of the provocation?
Flowers points out the double standard in how the media depict DV. The SNL sketch would never have shown a man attacking a woman, but a woman attacking a man is comedy.
And from her viewpoint as an attorney, she's seen DV go both ways. She's under no illusions that only men attack women or that only women are injured by an intimate partner. And she doesn't pretend that the legal system is fair to men. She points to the Lorena Bobbitt and the "Burning Bed" cases as ones in which, if the sexes had been reversed, the men would be doing long stretches in prison.
But it is unconscionable to have one standard for women, and another for men. you can say that men are physically stronger – but that surely isn't always the case. you can also point to a history of gender inequality which for years guaranteed that women would be forced to stay in a dangerous relationship for economic reasons.
But times have changed. we can't put our heads in the sand and pretend that women aren't as capable of abuse as their male partners, and that they are always the financial underdog.
There's a lot of sociology that Flowers doesn't seem to know about who commits DV, under what circumstances and why, and who the victims are. But her op-ed is a measure of how far we've come in gaining a wide-spread public understanding of DV. Not nearly far enough, but much further than just a few years ago.
Tiger Woods is the hypocrite, not the media. Tiger built an image of wholesomeness and good sportsmanship that he used to get multi-million dollar endorsement deals from Gatorade, Buick, Nike, and several other companies. now that it is obvious he has none of those qualities, the hypocrisy of his real persona versus his image has destroyed his corporate sales career.
Tiger can always return to making money by winning at golf, though he will apparently stop playing for a while, but his endorsement days are over and that's where the big money was.
We live in a world where there is a tabloid mentality.
Money, power, fans seems to go to certain people's heads.
Not trying to bring up a political war, but look at former president Clinton, the current SC governor, and several other politicians as well as other athletes, it's the same old story.
Thankfully, there are some that remain true to their wives and values, I think we should be exalting them instead of talking about the tawdry.
Because Tiger Woods is essentially the symbol of the sport of golf. in no other sport would it have this much impact. Then combine it with his efforts to stonewall the media, and you have what you have.
If it were a player in a team sport, it's different, as they have many big faces in those games (American/Canadian football, Australian rules football, baseball, basketball, soccer, rugby, ice hockey, you name it). And in boxing, honesty isn't exactly expected.
Tiger's just getting his puss-y. The only regrettable thing is that he is married and has two children. Jesus, I know so many personal friends and relatives who live a life of promiscuity that the idea of the world's highest paid athlete having multiple affairs doesn't seem to be that ludicrous. if he wanted to live the life of a bachelor he shouldn't have gotten married. Its either/or and for a man worth that much he should have known better. now he has to do damage control and go out of his way to repair his public image.
He's not – it's how he chose to handle it that made the difference – it wasn't until today he admitted to committing an infidelity, apologising for his transgression, acknowledged his sponsors and backers -
The reason he's sorry? He got caught, that's what he's apologising for, nothing more or less
yes its true most athletes have affairs but not many of them were the poster boy for so many commercials .With that goes a reputation they expect them to uphold. He lost the trust of many who looked up to him as a role model as they see hes no different than them.
i would guess, because Its golf, and golf has the cleanest image of any major sport. I mean think about it, i can think of all the biggest American sports, and all the athletes other than golf has showing tattoo's. To make this simple, golf is a clean cut sport, and happy Gilmore could never play it in real life hahahaha
hotair.com/archives/2009/12/08/th…
It sells ! simple.
Here's a fun, short game about Tiger and the mistresses (in source below)
He is different only in the aspect that he finally got caught and the sheer number of his affairs is an attraction for the sensationalists.
People thought of Tiger Woods as a role model because he projected such a clean image. now he'll have to change his name to Cheetah Woods. Lion Cheetah Woods.
It's rare that there is a scandal in the pro golf community and this distracts people from the real issues of the day.
He was the "most popular" active athlete in the world. That's why.
here here!!!!
and really … it is nobody else's business but his and his family….
AND I REALLY hope that he can repair the damage he has done to his marriage.
He's got the most money!
Audience = advertising dollars'
Tiger Woods= Audience= advertising dollars
Tiger woods + hookers= big audience=big advertising dollars.
If Anne Coulter got caught having sex with Obama that would be all over the media
Liberal president + Conservative hate monger sex scandal= well you get the picture by now
it is not hypocrisy, its business.
