More on the media-golf complex:

The Tiger Woods that was constructed for corporate consumption was spotless and smooth, an edgeless brand easily peddled to sheikhs and shakers...

...Anything dissonant was dealt with quickly and mercilessly. Tiger's caddy, an otherwise unemployable thug named Steve Williams, regularly harassed any spectator whom Williams thought might eventually harsh his man's mellow. The IMG handlers differed from Williams only in that they were slightly more polite. The golfing press became aware that stories about Tiger's temper, say, or about his ties to unsavory corporate grifters, would mean the end of access to the only golfer in the world who matters. There is a quick way to tell now which journalists have made this devil's bargain and which ones haven't — the ones insisting that this "accident" is somehow "not a story" are the sopranos in the chorus.

Comments

[Patrick Eakes]

Steve Williams aggressively protects Tiger on the course, but calling him a thug hardly seems fair. After all, he has caddied for five major champions in succession, and he is considered the best in the biz. And saying that a 21-year old, newly wealthy, attractive man likes the ladies hardly seemed like a scoop at the time or now.

There is no question that Tiger and his handlers have carefully crafted a fairy tale public image that was bound to crack at some point, but I think Pierce could make that point without coming off as a smug asshole.

[Roch101]

That's some purty prose, for sure.

[Not A Tiger Woods Fan, But...]

It's not a story -- just gossip. The Esquire writer is simply hoping to cash in on Tiger Woods' fame like everyone else.

What has happened with Woods and his wife is not really any of our business. Woods is not an elected official and he is not running for office. From what we can tell, he is not out driving drunk and becoming a public menace to anyone on the road from what we can tell.

The only reason people are interested in this is because he is a celebrity and it makes people feel good in this country to tear people down. I'm sure a lot of people feel better about their own miserable lives by saying "he's got all that money, a beautiful wife, fame and talent but he has the same problems I do."

I'm sure a lot of people who have never even met Tiger Woods will now say that they had a relationship with him in hopes of getting interviews, etc. to once again, cash in on his fame.

It is pathetic that we give this more attention than the war in Iraq or other issues that need to be dealt with in society.

[Ed Cone]

Yeah, we should just accept our heroes as they are packaged for us.

Tiger and his sponsors have made hundreds of millions of dollars off a carefully-crafted image. Who are we to question that image, just because of some inconvenient facts?

When you see Tiger in that car ad on teevee or in a huge wall panel in an airport, when the camera cuts away to his wholesome family just before next round of commercials, well, any unpleasant facts are to be ignored.

[Not A Big Fan Of Tiger Woods But...]

I'm sure Ed that as a journalist you advocate running stories on the personal lives of public figures without any checks and balances. I guess it's news to you since it's easier to report on this than to do actual reporting.

Your argument is that because they appear in commercials that their personal lives are fodder for the evening news?

The fact that more important news on CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, and elsewhere is being displaced by this crap is a symptom of what's wrong with the media. Would this have appeared on the news 20 years ago? I kind of laugh at that notion.

Why don't you dedicate all of your online posts to celebrities like Britney Spears? You have said yourself in the past that you get more hits when mentioning her than when you discuss local issues like zoning, elections, etc.

Let's all run to the bottom and not ignore those unpleasant facts that everyone has made mistakes in their lives! As you pointed out, this type of gossip rag crap is all important because those people appear in advertising and are public figures!

I'm so glad to hear a newspaper columnist say that they actually think this type of scandal sheet item is so important and it explains why newspaper readership is declining. Please keep making newspapers increasingly irrelevant! If I wanted to read about this crap, I'd go to TMZ.com and get more info on it anyway.

[Ed Cone]

I agree that celebrity culture is way overdone, and that real news is often displaced by trash. And I'm sure that this will devolve into a circus that goes beyond real journalistic interest.

But I disagree that this story has no legitimate news angles, some of which I tried to raise in my previous comment.

IMHO, "Tiger has affair" is not much of a story, but "Tiger has wee-hours wreck to which cops are called after wife tees off on his car, then tries to protect his carefully-crafted billion-dollar image with badly-executed PR spin, further unraveling the brand-built-on-lies" is a story.

FWIW, I am a fan of Tiger's.

[cheripickr]

Yeah, whether we accept our heroes as they are packaged for us is a very important societal issue. We should all do some deep soul-searching on it. After I watch Entertainment Tonight for the next hour I hope to have my wringing hands around how cheated I feel and the effect the disillusionment will have on my life. Hopefully society will have the decency to strip him of the fame and fortune gained from all this falsely manufactured idolatry to which we were such unwitting dupes.

[Ed Cone]

Well, yeah. If it's on this blog, it's deeply important. That includes posts about my dog, television shows, and lunch.

There are of course degrees of importance, and we each bring our personal points of view as to what is important and how important it is.

I'd rate this as a business, sports, and pop culture story of some magnitude. Other people will find it more or less interesting, and report and read about it accordingly.

[Spag]

Packaging of heroes? That's funny. I keep thinking of guys like Dale Earnhardt and Brett Favre and all their packaging. Danica Patrick? There might be some packaging there. Anna Kournikova? Definitely. And don't get me started on Barack Obama's packaging. But Woods, like the late Earnhardt and Favre, is the top at his sport. That is why the public took to him, not because of packaging.

[Grant]

The Esquire writer is simply hoping to cash in on Tiger Woods' fame like everyone else.

Please. I don't know if you read Pierce's post, but you've missed the point entirely. He's saying that, rather than just let us enjoy his extraordinary talent, those invested in Woods had to turn him into a celebrity demigod. Now that the image is reversed, and Woods will be a national joke for the rest of his life. It's tragic for him, and a damn shame for those of us who just liked to watch him play golf.

[Ed Cone]

Excellence and packaging are not mutually exclusive.

Favre and Woods are great at what they do, and popular because of it, and they add personal attributes that make their brands even more valuable. Companies pay to associate themselves with those personal brands, and concern themselves with the integrity of both performance and image.

Kournikova, Patrick, and Dale Jr. are good examples of packaging based on qualities other than pinnacle performance.

Pierce's article was an interesting (to me!) critique of corporate and media culture, not really TMZ material.

[Lex]

If I wrapped MY car around a tree, I wonder how accommodating the cops would be if I chose not to make myself available for discussions with them three days (or more) in a row, without even so much as invoking my Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

[Beelzebubba]

the wife has a tough policy on contrition. if you seek forgiveness before you're exposed, that's contrition. after the fact, you just regret getting caught. I told her that Tiger may be a triple tapper, but he's the best player from a hundred yards in I've ever seen. That got me the stink eye.

[Spag]

I don't think Dale Jr. is really packaged if by "packaging" you mean that an image is portrayed that is different from reality, but might be if you "packaging" is based on hype. He is in a slump now, but he did win 18 Cup races which puts him in the top 40 of all NASCAR drivers in history. That's a lot of competition over 60 years. He did have the instant packaging bonus of being an Earnhardt. His father was perhaps the most genuine major sports star ever. What you saw was what you got- that was also "marketed" but it wasn't phony. The only thing I can recall Earnhardt Sr. keeping from the public in terms of image was the fact that he wore glasses. Try finding a photo of that.

[My lawyer says I don't have to tell you sh*t]

"without even so much as invoking my Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination."

That's exactly what saying "No, Mr. po-leece officer, I WON'T talk to you" is. If they had enough evidence without your confession I'd guess they would charge you. Evidently, the Florida cops didn't think they had enough evidence to charge Tiger--maybe there's a sliding scale in Florida for sufficiency of evidence based on celebrity, I don't know. But without confessions, there would be a whole lot fewer charges, and even fewer convictions.

[Ed Cone]

There is no inherent disconnect between excellence and packaging. The packaging of excellent performers starts with their excellence, with other salable attributes (e.g., aw-shucks good-old-boyishness, steely-eyed focus, humor, hotness, wholesomeness, etc.) added to the mix and carefully tended by the managers.

Dale Sr. is a great example of excellence and packaging working together. His image as a tough and genuine North Carolina boy was a huge part of his lucrative appeal to fans. And if that image had been undermined to the extent Tiger's has been, it would be a big story in the realms of business, sports, and pop culture.

Dale Jr. is definitely a packaged product. That doesn't mean he wasn't successful on the track for a while, or that he might not be again, but he's as slickly-marketed as anyone in the business, and in my opinion the image at this point outweighs his accomplishments.

[Thomas]

The gambling issues cracked Jordan's PR veneer. I suspect the long term effects of this episode will be about the same on Tiger.

[Beelzebubba]

My lawyer sez: i guess that's what they mean when they say "anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law"...hell, most lawyers don't want to go to court. Why give them ammunition to kill you with on their own turf.

[Lex]

[[That's exactly what saying "No, Mr. po-leece officer, I WON'T talk to you" is.]]

Except that most suspects don't get extended the courtesy of being treated as if officers actually understand that.