Tiger Woods in Car Accident

Exactly.

My view is that a good sports/golf reporter can easily cover the sport without special cooperation from Tiger Woods, a special cooperation that wouldn't have been forthcoming regardless.

Seriously, is the PGA going to yank someone's credentials or refuse to grant them because they dared to cover this story? If not, then you can still cover a tournament, write about what happened and get the requisite Tiger quotes from the post-round press conferences or whatever. Pretty simple.

As has been stated earlier, the likelihood of a one-on-one with the guy was slim to none even before any of this crap went down. So what does anyone really have to lose by covering this story??

By the way, if anyone's credentials are yanked or refused simply because of coverage of this, that's just a whole new shitstorm waiting to happen, and I highly doubt the PGA will be interested in that. That's my opinion.

 

Thanks for the link.

Money quote from Jesper about Woods' troubles: "It's a private thing, of course. But when you are the guy he is, the world's best athlete, you should think more before you do stuff. . . And maybe not just do it, like Nike says."

 

I really respect Jesper, always liked his game and attitude, but I can't really think of many in his position who would actually call out the cheater and side with the wife. We don't see it from politicians, athletes or other celebrities when their colleagues cheat on their wives. Is Jesper the first?
It's easy for people with no connection to call out a guy, but for Jesper to stand up and say something like this, realizing there are others on the Tour who fool around is really something. Usually all we get is "it's an unfortunate situation" or "it's a private matter I don't want to comment on, but I'm praying for the family."

 

They released some more photos of his car...

http://jalopnik.com/5418018/tiger-woods-crashed-escalade-gallery//gallery/3

 

Rule 1 when you are a husband and a father: protect the family. Tiger failed.

 

Looks like he hit a gremlin...

 

Check out the book in the floor behind the driver's seat. Why does Tiger need to get a grip on physics?

 

I don't think Tiger deserves anything other than a little bit of privacy to deal with the situation the way he sees fit, and that's more out of respect for Elin than anyone else. I'm sure she's just as embarrassed as anyone by all of this, and she's entitled to that. Of course, if Elin wants to take it public, that's her prerogative, and Tiger's just going to have to deal with that. If the mistress wants to talk -- really talk -- give her a call. If all she's looking for is a quick payday and a cover shoot, send her to US Weekly. We don't need that shit.

But the point I've been trying to make is that our media is really going down the road of suck, and it's happening fast. I laughed at ESPN the other day when Neil Everett came on and said something along the lines of, "Here at ESPN, it's just the facts. Here's Tom Rinaldi with his report." And God bless Tom Rinaldi, because it was probably the most thorough report done yet by a TV reporter without going down the road of gossip or speculation. But "just the facts" at ESPN? Puh-leeze. The WWL had been flashing pictures from TMZ (somewhat acceptable) and speculating about the whole deal for two days at this point. And now it's just about the facts?

Meanwhile, CBS Evening News leads with the car crash. Acceptable. But where's the follow up? Where's the NEWS? You ran a basic pool report Sunday, but you can't piece together a story for Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday? You're CBS, one of the top three networks in the States, and you can't get any original reporting done? Christ.

We've fallen into this trap of infotainment, where the sex and the drama sell and we're just fine with that. And in this case, the sex is definitely selling. But in all of it, the reporters and the networks are missing the real gold mine of a story that exists here -- what in God's name really happened at 2:30 a.m. Friday night? Because regardless if Tiger had an affair, Elin has some questions to answer if she whacked him upside the head with a 3-iron. But we'll never get that -- the real meat of the situation -- because the reporters don't even know where to begin to find it.

And so, as it is, we're left with some crappy affair story, one we've heard a few hundred times with interchangeable names over the years, and by the time he tees it up at Torrey Pines in January, it'll be nothing more than a few dodged questions and a distant memory.

 

So this "What was he doing at 2:30 a.m." issue....how would YOU dig up that information? You seem pretty eager to bash other reporters for not getting that info. Enlighten us.

 

Alma--I know you will agree that anyone who has spent significant time around sports celebrities could fill a thousand issues of Us Magazine with salacious stories about the extra-curricular behavior the public rarely sees.

In what forum would you want to see that material? Daily newspapers? Evening news? ESPN? If I get a call from a woman claiming an affair/baby/ordeal with some big star, if I see a ballplayer get in a limo with a half-naked woman who is not his wife, is that news? If I have knowledge of Tiger Woods being a hound over the years, should I reveal that now? Should I have revealed it then? Do I want to be in that business? Do you?

Like many other scandals and revelations, bombshells are rarely launched on the day the story breaks....the fuses are lit long ago, and many people make what they think are responsible decisions to not fan the flames, perhaps because of journalistic ethics, or basic decency, or lack of actual evidence. And yet, as you point out, bigtime reporters are getting beat by 23 year old TMZers. Not sure how you would resolve this; it surely is not as simple as 'don't be so fucking lazy.'

(and ps, as always, nice to see you here.)

 

Ryan,

I don't mean to bash them for not getting the information. I do wish they'd at least try, though. We might never know what actually happened, and that's OK. Happens all the time. No one is going to make Tiger talk, no one is going to make Elin talk, and no one knows how much the neighbors know. So we might never get it. But you're going to get a hell of a lot closer to it than you are if you sit around and talk about him having a damn affair all day long. We can try to find out what happened Thanksgiving night, or we can sit around and speculate about bashing out the windows of Cadillacs with 3-irons, bloody fights and two-and-a-half year affairs. Which is going to get us closer to the truth?

Once again: the mainstream media, particularly the elite media (the WaPo, the Times, the networks) should not be in the business of pushing gossip stories. Either get the story, or let it die. Seems pretty simple, doesn't it?