Media and insecurity: the guilty throwing stones…
Tiger Woods. Heard of him? He plays golf. He’s won quite a few tournaments. He’s been called the best in the world. And in the last 3 months his off-the-course actions have cause a media firestorm. Mistresses, affairs and numerous other accounts of self indulgence—all of this while being married to a former Swedish bikini model who is the mother of his 2 children. How could he? Why would he?
Last week Tiger spoke publicly for the first time since all of his actions came to light. His words took a little over 13 minutes. His expression was blank and his delivery was stoic and rehearsed. He expressed his regret for his actions and repeatedly asked for forgiveness from his fans and his sponsors. You could probably say that it was what you might expect. What surprised me most about this event was not the speech itself, but the onslaught of scrutiny from the media that immediately followed.
As soon as the speech was finished, I began seeing headlines from news organizations, talk shows and blog and twitter posts about how insincere Tiger’s apology was. He was labeled “robotic” and “cold.” Again, the stones of cynicism and criticism were thrown. Judgment was laid down. The most disturbing part to me is that it almost seemed to be expected.
But why? Could it be that the media knows our underlying insecurities, so they actually assist us in pointing fingers? Let’s be honest, the comparison game can go a long way when you’re dealing with a Tiger-like scenario. But the truth is that each of us struggle. Each of us have acted in ways that we are glad no one knows about. So why not respond with understanding and compassion?
There were voices of compassion for Tiger. I saw many encouraging words and well wishes from individuals after his apology. Lightfield is one of these voices. Lightfield wants to provide an environment where all are viewed with humanity and compassion. It doesn’t excuse everything; it just offers hope in the midst of anything. So let’s unite behind hope, not cynicism.
-lewis
This is one of the worst things in the realm of humanity, in my opinion. We’ve developed such a voyeuristic society that it’s sick. Pornography – what happens in someone else’s bedroom should stay in their bedroom. It’s no one else’s business.
People Magazine, US weekly, etc… They bring to light what happens behind celebrities’ closed doors…or just insinuate what might happened behind closed doors and the public eats it up. They say that some Hollywood couple is going to break up and insinuate that one of the people is cheating on the other. There’s just enough to cast doubt in the mind of one of the celebrities, and it eats away at their relationship, and then of course they break up…with the tabloids being able to justify themselves with a big fat “We told you so.”
I don’t know why or when it all happened, but we’ve arrived at such a perverted sense of justice when someone we’ve elevated onto a pedestal falls from that perch. The day Tiger Woods held his press conference, I told someone, “If Tiger didn’t play in a tournament today, didn’t hit a great shot, didn’t come from behind, or didn’t win…then there’s no Tiger Woods story worthy of being news.” He didn’t owe an apology to anyone other than his own family. Not to me, not to you, not to the media, and not even to the PGA. He didn’t owe an apology to us, yet he manned up, admitted in front of millions his shortcomings and apologized anyway, and then people had the nerve to “critique” his apology???
“Let he who is without sin cast the first 9 iron.”