ORLANDO — (This is a breaking news alert.) For the first time in the history of mankind, a guy with fame and fortune gets caught in the sack with a woman who is not his wife.
OK, OK, you’ve heard plenty about our guy Eldrick. What, you don’t know Eldrick? Eldrick Woods?
Yep, that would be Tiger. Apparently he has been working hard to live up to his nickname. Next thing ya know, the wife finds out and, it’s rumored, she took a 3-iron to his head.
Such is life.
But why is this such big news? Famous guys constantly do this stuff. So why can’t we get enough of this story? And is Tiger right to tell the media to back off because this is personal?
Let’s begin.
Why is this such big news?
It’s big news because the public says it’s big news. News, especially entertainment news, certainly is driven by how much interest there is in the story. If TV, radio, magazines and newspapers see little public interest in a story, they simply don’t do it. If they see a lot of public interest, they won’t let it go. Truth is, you — as a consumer — make the decision on how big an entertainment story is.
Why can’t we get enough?
What is it about a story like this that captivates the public?
We are a society that loves to build people up to more than what they are and then loves to see them crash and burn. In other words, we embrace the little guy who has nothing because he is so much like us. And we love to take the journey with him as he makes himself a success.
But eventually we lose touch with the little guy who made good because the little guy loses touch with us. He loses his roots. He’s no longer one of us. He’s one of them. A chosen one. A big shot. He gets all the money, marries the beautiful woman, lives in the beautiful neighborhood in a beautiful home.
And when he screws up, it’s the big shot with all the money screwing up. Not the little guy he once was. We don’t have empathy or sorrow for him; we revel in his downfall.
Whether it’s right or wrong to feel that way about big shots really isn’t the point. It simply is the way it is.
Complicating Tiger’s issue is his made-up TV image. He makes Mister Clean look dirty. His public persona has been ground through so many marketing imagemakers, he has come out the other end looking like plastic.
Publicly, there’s nothing to him other than the same smile, the same golf jabbering, the same promotional hats. It’s done this way so as not to offend anyone in any way.
If he had shown some flaws early on, if he had stumbled here and there along the way, when a larger stumble occurred, it ain’t as bad.
In other words, if you’re Mick Jagger — a rootin’, tootin’ player from Day One — and you end up in bed with another woman, who cares?
But if you’re Mr. Perfect, if your image is built to be flawless, then you need to pay the price.
Should the media back off?
Huh? Are you kidding me?
The Bible says if you live by the sword, you die by the sword. Tiger has lived by the media. Now he must die by the media.
Well, famous folks never really die. He’ll recover as damaged goods. They always do.
But for him to now suggest that the very vehicle that brought him fame and fortune — and a few affairs on the side — should now go away is silly on its face.
Tiger made this mess. It’s of his own doing. The entertainment media have a tiger by the tail (or is that tale?).
They won’t soon let go.
Lou Brancaccio is The Columbian’s editor. Reach him at 360-735-4505 or lou.brancaccio@columbian.com.
