I have an idea. Let’s get back to real news.
I’m so unbelievably tired of hearing about Tiger Woods’ sex scandal. There is absolutely no value to the public to hear every detail of this man’s escapades. It’s now gotten to the point where it has become not only invasive to his family, but also repulsive in general.
Don’t get me wrong, as a married man; Woods should not have cheated on his wife. However, doing so is his business. I’m not justifying his actions, nor am I condoning the actions of the women he was involved with, I’m simply saying that all of the attention and media hype is not newsworthy.
There were several times when I felt that enough was enough regarding the media coverage of Woods, but like some sort of insect infestation, the coverage always seemed to intensify. Although I often turn the channel when any of his mistresses are on television, there was one time when I was doing some chores around the house and stayed tuned in. I listened as one of the mistresses explained the type of sex Woods enjoyed.
It wasn’t the intimate details that the woman shared with millions of viewers that made me watch the segment, rather it was the woman herself. I couldn’t believe that she so willingly shared private aspects of her time with Woods in such an overt manner. As she spoke, the woman even laughed and joked with the reporter about the incidents of indiscretion.
I found myself wondering if this woman even thought about the negative way people must view her for not only sleeping with a married man, but for publicly telling the world all the illicit details. I couldn’t believe it.
Being a mistress is wrong – no matter how you look at it, but being a mistress who doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut is far worse. Again, I’m not overlooking the immoral behavior of Woods or any of the women – all parties involved were wrong, but at least Woods isn’t going around telling the public private details of his concubines’ lives.
This leads me to another point. We’ve all heard the saying, “If you lie with dogs, you’ll wake with fleas.” This is certainly applicable to the type of women Woods chose to associate himself with. For them to save every voicemail and text message that they received from Woods shows that they had ulterior motives from the beginning.
I’m tired of women degrading themselves in order to make a buck. It’s unfortunate that the media is playing into this entire ordeal. Woods is not the first celebrity to be unfaithful, nor will he be the last. We have to stop placing people on pedestals and look at them as regular people. The last time I checked I only had one God.
As a journalist, it’s frustrating for me to see valuable time and space being wasted on the Woods scandal. I know this industry has entered into a forum of “edutainment,” or news that’s supposed to be informative and entertaining, but the Woods ordeal is taking it to an entirely different level.
I long for the days when news was news and paparazzi was taboo. The lives celebrities led in private were their business and media respected that. Remember President Franklin Roosevelt? He suffered from polio, which caused his legs to be paralyzed. The media was fully aware of his limitation, but they didn’t exploit him. They respected his privacy. Another example is President John F. Kennedy. Everyone had a pretty good idea that Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe were romantically linked, but those close to the president didn’t spill the beans to tabloids and traditional media outlets respected Kennedy’s role as president and even his wife’s role as first lady by not publicizing the affair.
I’m not saying that because someone is in the public eye, they should receive preferential treatment, because they shouldn’t. However, what happens in their personal lives should remain personal. I could care less about who is sleeping with whom, or which celebrity owes millions of dollars in taxes. There are far more important things to worry about in this world such as a cure for cancer, quality health care for everyone and education initiatives that don’t leave children behind. Let’s refocus people, and talk about what really impacts our lives. Tiger Woods, his wife, nor any of his mistresses make my list.
