Is Tiger Woods fair game for the media? Do you think a candid TV interview would help him?

numbskull, Tiger Woods is a public figure who makes money from us.

Hephatsheput: numbskull, Tiger Woods is a public figure who makes money from us. Therefore it is my right to know everything about him.

He should be strip-searched like Michael Jackson, and have his privates photographed close-up in the same manner. Sure. But I want to correct you on one thing: actually, his sponsors make money off us. Tiger makes money off the sponsors. The difference is important because everybody makes money off of just about everybody to some degree.

numbskull, Tiger Woods is a public figure who makes money from us. Therefore it is my right to know everything about him.

Tiger in fact, DIDN'T give the media full acess to himself prior to this scandal, and thereby make himself available for interview after interview concerning his rise to and existence in prominence of golf?

BT your post is so full of whack comments its hard to pin them all down in one go! Apparently, NO, he did not give FULL media access or all this would have been known a long time ago! Second, how does "making oneself available for interviews" equate to self promotion as a man who shares your morality and sticks to it?

I am not surprised you bought the products he promotes thinking he shared your ideals off the golf course. You seem quite gullible.

Your first three questions are all about golf and nothing to do with his private life.

Blue_Tiger: a name and image we, the viewing public, were led to believe was squeaky clean, wholesome, and family-oriented?

How were you led to believe this? Who the hell said he was squeaky clean, wholesome, and family-oriented according to your values? How great a fool does it take to not only assume those things, but also to believe them??

The man passed himself off as some sort of upstanding family man, causing a surge in golf attendance ..., passing himself off as having upright values, all the while, he was filandering around with other women.

Again, what made you think this things about Tiger? Can you give me one quote or even one product slogan where this is stated? Here I thought it was his image as a great golfer that had people lining up! I thought it was his image as a golfer that all but one of his sponsors still keep him! Go ahead. Enlighten me as to how on Earth you figured Tiger shared your personal values.

I have no pity for the man.

Reason one why I find you to be immoral.

To set the record straight for my part, numbskull, when I first heard of Tiger's marital failings with an alleged mistress, I prayed the story was untrue and unfounded.

I daresay you could do a lot more than consider that in the past tense. The alleged first affair remains an unfounded rumor. By not condemning its publication and finding the outcome justified, you are saying that the ends justifies the means. Reason number two why I find you immoral.

As such, it is every person's right to know what he has really been doing

Well let us say that one of Tiger's kids got molested by a stranger. Let's say Tiger had to make court appearances over that. He might want to cover that up. Do we have a right to know? Let's say that Tiger visited the hospital to take care of hemorroids. Do we have a right to know? Let's say he had sex with his wife on the kitchen table. Do we have a right know? Lets say that Tiger has a training method that made him great, but he wants to keep it a secret to keep his edge. Do we have a right to know?

If no, what is the difference? Where does our right to know stop and start? Are no secrets acceptable, or this just about the secrets you want to know personally to promote your agenda? I think its the latter.

Until you prove its not the latter, this is reason three why I find you immoral.

Reason four why I find you immoral is the whole media deal is straining his marriage to the point that just a few affairs alone would not have. It all might end because of the media attention, and not really the affairs. And you have little to say against that media attention even where it began and remains a rumor. Reason four why I find you immoral.

No, he didn't. His sponsors did.

Oh please. They were partners in the venture.

Ah, so, numbskull, Tiger DIDN'T make a profit on his being on Television? Tiger in fact, DIDN'T give the media full acess to himself prior to this scandal, and thereby make himself available for interview after interview concerning his rise to and existence in prominence of golf? He DIDN'T sign his name to endorsement after endorsement after endorsement in order to reap the bounties of his golfing prowess, even so far as going on television and radio airwaves, magazines, and newspapers asking people to do business with the products he endorsed by them using his name and image...a name and image we, the viewing public, were led to believe was squeaky clean, wholesome, and family-oriented?

Please, numbskull, if you're going to pass judgment and slander me with labels, please feel free to answer these questions. The man passed himself off as some sort of upstanding family man, causing a surge in golf attendance and viewing merely by his presence on the varuious courses and in tournaments he has participated in, passing himself off as having upright values, all the while, he was filandering around with other women.

To set the record straight for my part, numbskull, when I first heard of Tiger's marital failings with an alleged mistress, I prayed the story was untrue and unfounded. I've been a Tiger Woods fan for years, and honestly, he was the only reason I bothered to watch golf in the first place. I daresay that there are millions more like myself. However, after finding out that there are now as many as 16 mistresses, I have no pity for the man. His image is ruined, and sadly so. His family is stained and broken, tragically so. For anyone to wish ill on anyone else is terrible, and I certainly do not wish for this to happen to anyone else. However, beign a customer of the products that Tiger has endorsed, and watchign the tourneys he has participated in my money has become part of his salary. As such, it is my wish that he would come clean. NBo-one is prying inot his life; it is he that has set his life up as something it really wasn't and banked off of that. As such, it is every person's right to know what he has really been doing, especially if their hard-earned money has been spent purchasing things he endorsed, thereby paying his salary...

Tiger is fair game for the media because he used the media as an income earning tool

No, he didn't. His sponsors did. And the media his sponsors used were billboards and magazine ad space, not articles on his life and career.

The articles on his life and career were written by journalists who wanted to do that, same with this aspect of his life. If you can find that Tiger ever paid anyone to write a promotional piece about himself, let us know. But even if his sponsors did, it hardly opens up Tiger in the way you suggest.

Face it, you just love to see a man hounded for your ultra-right puritanical viewpoint and its nothing to with your baseless, made on-the-fly rules. Be honest now, or your moral stance means nothing. No, actually it already does. There is no moral grounds to pry into a man's life like this. It is patently immoral and you ought to know that.

The kiss-and-tell women are also fair game. Let's make their lives equally miserable.

Yes and Yes. Yes, Tiger is fair game for the media because he used the media as an income earning tool, therefore, the media has every right to pry into his life, especially in a matter liek this.

A tell-all interview with a trusted journalist or talk-show host would do wonders for Tiger, I believe. It would give him a forum to tell his side o' things, and to set the record straight. Certianly at this point, TV interview would be a great help.....

cracaphat, banging your students is whole different kettle of fish.

As another article mentioned about Tiger moaning to Palmer about the attention he garnered but didn't want,was told by Arnie,if you dont want the attention,dont take the money.

Sounds like they were talking about a different kind of attention though. This kind of attention is like following him into the shower, or his bedroom. I think Arnie might use different words about this. This is not just unwanted attention. This is more like harrassment or stalking. In fact, Arnie also said:

"you can, if you wish - and I've done it, I know - have your private life." Yeah, I think Arnie would say this is bullcrap.

Obviously you believe in non responsibility for your payment.

No. I dated plenty of students. But I was not "out to bang them". I dated responsibly. But if somebody decided to follow me around and tell rumors and then an ex-lover decided to tell the boss and the staff, yeah, that might have created a problem. But since that never happened, there was no problem. I say again, there was no problem, and its nothing to do with my active and satisfying sex life. Its to do with people minding their own business and acting responsibly. I will far quicker defend someone's right to a varied sex life than try to give them the right to blab and screw up the lives of others.

I agree with cracaphat.Tiger got paid for his image otherwise he wouldn't have gotten so much money.

Name one celebrity that isn't. It seems that the 'media' gets a type of satisfaction from helping to destroy the lives of the rich and famous. I guarantee you that if Tiger was an everyday man on the street, with a 9 to 5 job like most people this would not have made a headline.　

cracaphat:Read an article stating that the sponsors are investing big dough in him due to his image.

What does that mean? They buying his oats? Paying for only the best trainers, groomers and stall cleaners? Working on drugs that keep his penis flacid unless his wife is around? How do you invest big dough in a man's image? And how great a fool does this thinking the risks are small?

If he were not a famous golfer nobody would know or care about this. It is his private matter.

I actually don't care whether Tiger repairs his "good-boy" imagine or not. He is just a golfer, he gets paid huge money to play a sport. The fact is that we love to build up these celebrities to great heights and then rip them down and beat them to shreds.

What a provincial, Puritannical moralising country the US is showing itself to be. It's amazing to me that any of this is even more than a minor inside pages issue. Unbelievable that in 2009 that this is even news. What is it that he's supposed to have done? And this is probably from the same mindset that would criticise conservative morality under Islam, and spout off about "freedom". All those people taking such an interest in what Tiger Woods does off the golf course, get a life, and join the twenty-first century!

next thing you know the woods defenders will want the media to britney spears and similar alone too haha.

Woods deserves everything he is getting, remember that saying folks, about eating cake.... why shud woods be able to bank all the $$$ & then get a pass, I say tough it out their woodsy

What can help him in this case would be divorce, of course he doesnt care about his wife. Also, if he visits Roppongi here, that would help him a lot to keep having some fun!!!

"Anyway it was the article in the scum rag that started the fight the night of the accident, or so it would seem."

National Enquirer. I hate them.They are also the ones who exposed John Edwards' affair and love child. But I'm sure the rest of the corporate media would have gotten around to it sooner or later.

Tiger should say nothing to the public at all regarding his personal business. It's none of anyone's business any more than knowing how and when he goes to the toilet. What the interest in such non-issues demonstrates is a complete lack of competence of the media as well as an insult to the public. With all the things which are happening in the world of which the public doesnt know about, but should be informed, that they choose to focus on what someone is doing in his private life deserves nothing less than all out ridicule.

Until I get a personal apology from Tiger Woods I am never watching him or buying any of his products again. We all need to stand up and be united on this.

Sorry, continued... that she had an affair with Woods and produced the text messages.

When I say harlot I refer only to Jaimee Grubbs and any other harlot who opens their mouths. And I would much prefer to see them villified over Woods. Fascinating how times change, because in another age, they would have been given no mercy. And frankly, I think this age is cracked in that respect.

anderstungtwist: Yeah, why couldn't she just take her name off her voicemail? She just had to do that for him. Huge. Quickly.

Well, this is awkward. The above prompted to me do a check, and while I would say I was still 90 percent right, I was 10 percent wrong. This got started when the National Enquirer, a scum rag read by scum people, had enough scumminess to publish an article claiming that Rachel Uchitel‎ had an affair with Woods. I know nothing about Uchitel except that she denies it, and whether its the truth or a lie, she has my support in that. As far as that goes, she is clean in my eyes. Anyway it was the article in the scum rag that started the fight the night of the accident, or so it would seem.

It was after that that the harlot,Jaimee Grubbs (fitting name) claimed in another scum rag, US Weekly

I disagree. Everything was fine until the harlot talked.

Yeah, why couldn't she just take her name off her voicemail? She just had to do that for him. Huge. Quickly.

NoriPfan: Technically, they could sue him for breach of what is probably written in his contract.

It was good cya to put the word "technically" in there. Because even if some fool sponsor were to give it a try, they would not win the case. Contracts have inherent limitations. You cannot make yourself a slave via contracts for example. You can write it in one if you want, but no court will uphold the violation of a person's rights, not even to just get a cash settlement. The sponsors can try dictate Tiger's personal life, but it won't stand up in court.

A great golfer on the green, but a poor character in maintaining a good husband to his wife.

I disagree. Everything was fine until the harlot talked.

Technically yes and no. For a famous golf athlete, logically his personal sex life has nothing to do with performance on the golf green. However, his fame is what got him his popularity and therefore his commercial earnings is a lot more than just his golf salary. Thus, there lies his responsibility to keep a good image for his sponsors. And that's why he really failed to keep his image to his sponsors, which potentially could sue. Technically, they could sue him for breach of what is probably written in his contract. Now that the "cat's out of the bag", he would best play it low key and focus on his relationship with his wife first. I wish him well. A great golfer on the green, but a poor character in maintaining a good husband to his wife. Life may not be fair, but he needs to own up to it.

Is Tiger Woods fair game for the media?

Legally, unfortunately yes. That should change. Morally, he most certainly is not. But you will kindly note that the people who "claim" to be so moral can't accept that.

Do you think a candid TV interview would help him?

Help what? His golf game? No. The only help he needs is for people to mind their own business. And it would have helped him a lot more if that were done sooner.

What I would like to see is candid TV butt-kicking of the people who printed the shameless tongue waggling of his former mistress now turned media harlot. Then I would like to see her named for the harlot she is by a studio audience. Please understand, had she kept her mouth shut, she could have still been a lady in my eyes.

The only thing that surprises me is, there is not a long string a Japanese women on his list of adulterees.

Do the crime, do the time. Suck it up Tiger! You should have kept it in your pants.

Triumvere: But the truth is, people want heroes

Oh, yes, especially when those heroes validate their own limited way of life. It is amazing their capacity for self-delusion when it turns out that so many greats don't share their small-minded moral rut and never did. It is especially astounding that we hear this clap-trap from Americans, when so many of the American Founding Fathers did not live up to this petty plebian worldview. Its not that Tiger is a fallen hero. He is just the same kind of hero as so many others; one who was not daunted by the limits and yoke others sought to place on him.

Trust me,the American media would never,ever 'invent' a persona for a light-skinned black male who they wanted to see succeed in the biggest way possible.Thats as ridiculous as saying they would also conspire to hide anything in his past, or explain away criminals who,it emerged, were longtime friends or associates of the man in question.Please turn off the Fox News now.

"Fair Game"? The media invented Tiger Woods - no, not his golfing talent, but his public persona: a carefully managed image packaged and sold for millions. That man never really existed.

People who look to athletes and entertainers as role models, other than in athletics or entertainment, are fools!

Amen to that. But the truth is, people want heroes and as long as they do the media and corperate sponsers will be happy to sell them to you. Unfortunately for Tiger, the media also loves fallen heros...

I think that the private life of a golf champion is nobody's business but his own. I am sick and tired of hearing aobut the private lives of entertainers and sports figures - their moraltiy, or lack thereof, has nothing to do with their jobs. It is a little different with politicians - we trust them with public money, and if they are not trustworthy in one respect, they may be untrustworthy in others. Peole who look to athletes and entertainers as role models, other than in athletics or entertainment, are fools!

All these people talkin', all this stuff about him; why don't they just let him be?

It is his problem and his problem alone. I feel sorry for his wife. The media should just leave them alone. Tiger Woods gives us amazing sports achievements that we can enjoy watching and it should end there. He definitely has no reason to apologize to me.

herefornow

If he wants us to forgive him, then he needs to man-up to the pain he has caused.

Who the hell is 'us'? You? The only people whose forgiveness Tiger needs to earn is his wife, his children, and others directly involved and affected by his misbehavior. He doesn't owe you anything.

Everybody is fair game to the media. There are laws in place for things like this. If any media cross the line, they get sued.

I think a candid TV interview would hurt him more than anything else. The absolute best thing he can do is keep a low profile, and win some majors. Let the media say what they will. He's already lost all his media income, if he stops playing golf he'll lose that as well. Unless he's got massive investments that are paying dividends, he's going to need some dough.

He should go on Letterman, not Oprah. He definitely should play, but not necessarily in the U.S. Go to Europe. Soon, Americans will be begging him to come back. He's my hero and not for his golf. Hard to believe considering how funny looking he is and that mange on his head.

Don't care.

Absolutely he is fair game. He took millions from folks like Accenture due to his image for integrity and moral character. A free press has every right to see if all the rumors -- and there had to be rumors given the number of gals involved -- were true. And, no he should not do a candid TV interview, unless Elin is with him. Otherwise it will just be more contrived PR spin. If he wants us to forgive him, then he needs to man-up to the pain he has caused.

"The Media" seldom play fair, as for Tiger Woods candid TV interview, hope people will be able to recognise him (rumors about his facial injuries that include lips and teeth as well) but it is not going to help him now...!