People have asked me for my opinion about Tiger Woods/IMG ordering the Golf Writers Association of America to show up at Woods’s “news conference” where he’ll deliver a fake apology, but not be allowing any questions. Here it is, as part of my letter to Varten Kupelian, the president:
I think the golf writers should boycott the Tiger Woods “Apology” tomorrow. While a reporter or two should be there to send back their observations, the GWAA should not be allowed to be seen as a prop, nor should we be used as window dressing or silent partner.
The rank and file golf writers are almost unanimous in their outrage: it sends the wrong message to our readers if we grant our imprimatur upon being silent and complicit in what amounts to a sham and a fraud of a “news conference.” Woods – who deserves no clemency after what he did – has no business asking us to be sit there and nod our approval so he can try to rebuild his image. We’re reporters, not lap dogs. It also shows Woods hasn’t learned a thing from this ordeal, and that he’s as unrepentant as ever making such an unpalatable, unsavory demand. He deserves another shot in the chops from Elin for even asking. Nevertheless, after tomorrow’s debacle, his image will be even further sullied all because he doesn’t have the courage to face tough questions and be true to us, his wife, and himself.
This important moment in the story – perhaps the most important since the scandal broke – demands that questions be asked and serious, thoughtful answers be given. Yet for professional journalists to show up on the condition of agreeing to keep our tongues in our mouths and smile for the cameras on cue sets a ghastly precedent that we can be used and walked all over, and betrays our duty as journalists. We would undercut our credibility, and we would be no better than the panderers and enablers who allowed Woods to get into this mess in the first place.
We do Woods, the Tour, golf, our readers, and ourselves a dis-service if we allow the cycle of “pamper, protect, worship, and obey” to begin all over again. We cannot allow Woods or any other athlete to treat us like Kleenex tissues: use us when he needs us, and then we are disposable. He also should not be allowed to tell us what we can ask and what we can’t. We are journalists, not PR people. One misguided PR person simpered, “I just want him to be who he is and play golf.” Well that got him in this mess to begin with. If you don’t learn from your mistakes, you repeat them and compound them. Maybe Woods wants to live like that, but self-respecting journalists don’t.
The GWAA – the gold standard of reporting in the sport – has a duty to protect the integrity of the both our craft as writers and the game. We should not be bullied into keeping silent. Our readers will lose faith in us as a body and we’ll be the laughing stock of the various sports writing associations.
This is a “man or a mouse moment” for us as writers. If Woods wants to continue to self-immolate by being every bit as fake and arrogant as he was before this scandal broke, that’s fine, but we can’t shrink from our duties to be journalists and not report critical stories about the game for the sake of the extra money the “Jack record chase” brings in to the PGA Tour. That’s selling out the game as well as our integrity – individually and as a body.
The rest of the journalistic world must know we will not be ordered into silence, we will not be beholden to agents, stars, the star system or money, and we are not going to walk away from the tough story because it’s the easy thing to do. Moreover, we need to send an important message to Team Woods: things will be different this time around.
He fooled us once: shame on him, but if we let him do it again, it’s shame on us.
***UPDATE*** Golf Writers Board votes 19-4 (3 abstentions) to boycott the Woods Dog and Pony Show.
As reported by Hank Gola, who also is a voting member, the GWAA Board of Directors will boycott tomorrow’s “conference” and not send a three member panel to watch, smile on cue, and simper lovingly at poor, misunderstood, tired, privacy-deprived Woods. From the article:
“The board of directors of the Golf Writers of America has voted unanimously to boycott Woods’ statement reading unless it is opened to all accredited media.
“I cannot stress how strongly our board felt that this should be open to all media and also for the opportunity to question Woods,” said Vartan Kupelian, president of the 950-member group.
“The position, simply put, is all or none. This is a major story of international scope. To limit the ability of journalists to attend, listen, see and question Woods goes against the grain of everything we believe.”
The vote was 19-4 with three abstentions.
The GWAA will not provide the three pool reporters it had first agreed to send. The three wire services, Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg News Service, will still attend the 11 a.m. event, which will be broadcast through one pool camera from the clubhouse of TPC Sawgrass, the headquarters of the PGA Tour.”
