WHO CARES?

He owes me NOTHING. I don't buy watches or razor blades or anything else because of his image. I watch him play golf like a machine every now and then on the TV. What he does, how "clean" some people would like to think he is, whether he pays his wife millions to stick around, I just don't give a damn. And spare me the manufactured outrage of some "columnist".

Gordo is no Tiger

so, tell me: how did Gordo get away with his scandal(s)?
Do people see him as a bum and accept his failings as being in line with his image?

Chinese TV?

I don't think that re-enactment was on Chinese TV. Maybe you mean Chinese-speaking TV? Chinese implies China where simplified characters are used but clearly the video is in complex characters.

You know, this is BC. There is a large Asian community. It is ridiculous that BC journalists are allowed to write copy that is so ignorant of the Chinese-speaking community. Would you say that there was a re-enactment on English TV that did not come from England?

Why not just ask a Taiwanese friend what is going on- whether it is Chinese or Taiwanese etc...

Scandal ?

It's unfortunate that even the Tyee thinks this is news. A rich guy maybe screws around on his wife and it's front page news.

We live in a province with the highest level of child poverty in the country, we're getting ready to whisk the poor and homeless of the streets and way from cameras, and THIS is what we're obsessing about?

Do any of you every go outside and walk around the city ?

Christ sakes

Not here. Not here. I thought that I wouldn't have to involuntarily imbibe one more line of Tiger Woods car crash bullshit by avoiding the regular media, and here I am, my mind invaded by speculation about inane GARBAGE that MEANS NOTHING. NOTHING.

I even read part of the article because I thought it had to be a vehicle for some media criticism, or something else of value. NOTHING. NOTHING. Just more spin about SOME GUY THAT PLAYS GOLF.

Whenever I see a Vanessa Richmond article I will not read it. I don't care if you're breaking the biggest story of our generation; I'm taking an irrational, prejudiced stand against any of your work, FOR LIFE.

Not here too

I couldn't even read past the first paragraph. I've had enough of build 'em up tear 'em down media. I couldn't care less about Tiger Wood's 'brand'.

The 'brand' this story undermines it that of the Tyee.

OR...

If he were a politician this would be par for the course.

The tragic part is human

The tragic part is human stupidity of buying anything endorsed by some idol.

The same goes for TV commercials. Why on Earth should anybody buy a car, or anything, especially those disgusting hamburgers shown in TV ads ?

No wonder the tragedies of history keep on repeating themselves because of human gullibility.

Ed Deak.

Right on Ed!

Any endorsement of a product by some celebrity isn't worth seagull droppings. The celebrity gets paid enough not to care whether the product is good value or crap. I would never buy a product endorsed by any of these guys and I have no illusions about their moral character being any better than most. Ed is so right in the above post. The proliferation of this kind od nonsense is an indication of just how dumb the average person has become.

TV spots

About those commercials:
A friend of mine is a part time actor and had one gig where he was to drink a glass of milk, smile and endorse the product, which he did.
In real life this man absolutely HATES milk!
But money talks, end of story!

Not in the Tyee, please!

Vanessa Richmond, I acknowledge that your entertainment gossip column tends to be of a higher quality than TMZ or ET, but as others have noted, is this issue really necessary for the Tyee?

I come to this online magazine precisely to escape the mass media celebrity gossip-fetishism that dominates the headlines. Yes, I know what you're thinking: "no one is forcing you to read my article, or worse, respond it to." Fair enough, but I want to be on record with Tyee and readers that I'd prefer a more enlightened brand of journalism, than the mass media commercial variety.

We are on the eve of the most critical climate change convention of our lifetime, the Olympics are sucking our local economy and privacy rights bone dry, child poverty is highest in BC again... and Tiger Woods sexual transgressions is today's headline in the Tyee? Come on, Tyee, you can do better.

I have more than enough options out there to get my Tiger Woods stories, I don't need another one here, no matter how academically sexed up it might pretend to be.

Of Tigers and PABlum

Quote: "What's the biggest public relations sin? It's not infidelity, not kinky or non-hetero sex, not even making or watching sex tapes. But hypocrisy: pretending to be one thing -- profiting from it -- and behaving otherwise."

But the mortar of public relations has always largely been a calculated mix of hypocrisy and lies.

The real sin when it comes to PR is getting caught at the game.

We don't have to look far for an example of how the lies of PR are created to camouflage and protect the corrupt ways of BIG MONEY - or to understand why the supposed perfection of the "best place on earth" would require such a massive and sly Public Affairs Bureau if indeed that "best place on earth" branding was the truth.

I feel your pain Beers

I'll bet you wonder why you even get out of bed some days....:)

Get over yourselves posters. You act like YOU own the Tyee. It's not enough for you that 75% of the articles here are negative and politically bent, you want 100% and anybody that doesn't agree with that is shouted down or is categorized as not as "enlightened" as your progressive selves.

So heres what you do. Get some cash or investors together, start up your own site and quit bitching.
You could call it The Flounder, that seems appropriate...

Humping 'n bumping...

I'd rather watch paint dry than read this. Who, other than the media voyeurs and other self-appointed guardians of the public morals, really give a rat's ass.

These folks won't be happy 'till you cut off your dick, Tiger. And women have long loved a rich and powerful man. They will all want to have your baby. And that entirely natural human dynamic will make this guys life a constant temptation. Which would be okay, but the hypocrisy of the system, of which he was himself a part, is out there too.

Until he finally learns it makes your life far less complicated and risk prone, if you just jerk off when the temptation strikes... like the rest of us.

Humans love to hump 'n bump copiously, alone, coupled or in groups. We are driven to by elemental forces of nature. No surprise there. Only don't get caught, or they will revel in making your life a living hell.

:-) Just as a matter of long observation, not personal experience, of course. :-(

Happy - you missed the boat

At least on my criticism you did.

None of the critical remarks here suggest a desire for a 100% hell-bent dystopian journal. I love the lighter stuff, the music/film/arts articles. I just think the Tyee does not need to jump on the Tiger Woods bandwagon. I'd sort of hoped that this is what makes a magazine like the Tyee distinct from the mass media.

But hell, I'll let this one slide, and mark it down as one of those Tyee anomalies that pops up from time to time.

And no, I will not gather investors and start my own e-zine. Why would I, when the Tyee is the best going in this region? The fact the Tyee allows a free flow of "bitching" is further evidence of their value as a community online magazine. But this doesn't mean I have to agree with every editorial decision or story choice.

Thanks for the criticism

Great conversation here, and I do note the concerns of those who think we should have steered clear of Tiger's tale entirely. On the other hand, I note that this story has quickly become the 'best rated' by readers. For those who don't know, every story gives you the opportunity to rate it from one to five. The results are displayed on the home page.

Have a good weekend all.

Obama and dot coms were highly "rated" too, Mr. Beers.

Journalist: a person without any ideas but with an ability to express them.

Just more fluff

What you don't seem to understand, Mr Beers, is that we've come to expect that even if a story assaults our POV, or concerns a subject not of particular interest to us, we read it anyway, hoping to take something of unexpected value from it.

But you've PO'ed us by duping us into totally wasting the time we spent reading this completely valueless article of the kind we've complained about in the past.

Why focus on Tiger's personal life when his endorsement deals...

are far more destructive to his squeeky clean image:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121026661&ps=cprs

Wow, so much for quality alternative news

I took thetyee off my list of reliable alternative news resources on the net several weeks ago, but have checked back every now and again to see if the site has restored its commitment to quality journalism. Guess not.

Who cares???

This sort of crap is only interesting to the kind of people who buy a perfume because Britney Spears "designed" it.

Who cares

News Item: Tiger Woods is involved in a car crash and taken to hospital. Injuries not considered serious and he is released to go home.

Non-news item: Tiger Woods unfaithful to his wife and makes a fortune from endorsements. The latter is common knowledge and the former is none of our business.

The author has offered no proof that his endorsements are predicated on a clean-cut image, because if that were the case then maybe I'd cashing some mega cheques. Could it possibly be that the endorsements were tied to his overwhelming success as a golfer? Duh!

There are so many more issues happening around the world that should be reported on that really have an impact on many people, and all we get is extended coverage on a situation that pretty much affects no one but the Woods' family and his mistresses. There is obvioulsy something wrong with this picture.

It's Not About Tiger

The real story here, is the fact that in North America we worship sports figures, movie actors and such, while we do everything we can to pretend God does not exist.
That is our shame.

Too bad

Too bad when a tiger turns out to be a cheetah, but worse when the Tyee cares about it.

Why don't we see some good journalism about Gordo's "alleged" scandals. One hears the rumors but never the facts. Gordo has a lot more bearing on our well fair than an overpaid putter.

I don't get what you guys don't get

This isn't about Tiger Woods diddling the help. This is about Tiger Woods, Inc. and how corporations sell to people. From the time he was three, Tiger Woods has been packaged to North Americans as the next big thing. Corporations from Buick to Nike to Master Card to Tiger Woods Inc. itself have a huge stake in this guy keeping his image squeaky clean. That it's (almost certainly) a lie is emblematic of the seedy underpinning of the lies that these corporations tell consumers. That's why this is a story and why it's an important story.

Life Inc. is about selling stuff

Totally agree, Tony Martinson.

Nothing is about real politics, sports, or literature or the arts etc. or even "real" people anymore.....it's all about what sells and about....

The Importance of Being Marketable.

Come on Tony, Lynn...

There's no way you can read the Tyee and drink the Kool-Aid

This story is important because you haven't said anything about what it diverts your attention from: 1, 2, 3.

With every word The Tyee gives to this corporate drivel it is "swimming downstream" contrary to it's alleged aim.

Crap like this can only cause a reasonable reader to doubt all the journalism on the site, which serves none of us in light of 1.

Tony Martinson

Very good point. However, I do wish Richmond had herself made that point with more vigour. We, to our everlasting damage, live in a world fraught with the deceit and corruption of the corporate meme (so to speak), which is public relations, marketing, and that moral and ethical void that is advertising. And I really think it would serve us all very well if that were clearly and unambiguously brought into the open more. Much more.

cartoon

Go to this site today for a viewing on a cartoon on this topic.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/toon.php

peasant43

That (1,2,3,) was a really interesting link, peasant 43. Yes, securing Afghanistan (...and the other stans) has always been about securing US pipelines - the increasing number of US troops there more evidence of the fact. They aren't going to leave, despite the spin.

I get your point above and it is a very good one but still, I think it is important for people to understand how marketable "products" like Tiger Woods help get corporations behind closed doors, create access where previously there was not access, get them into Afghanistan, Iraq etc. It's the use through advertising of the friendly globally-recognized face/brand, the lies used to sell American integrity, that helps corporations build trust and look so benign....look so non-lethal while doing very lethal stuff..... brands like Tiger provide such good cover for corporations everywhere...

I agree with SicPreFix that Vanessa could have made that point with more vigour, but I often enjoy reading Vanessa's columns....she's a good writer and and I appreciate that she has a difficult (and controversial) task in that she often reports on the profundity of fluff/stuff - but fluff does have profound implications on our lives precisely because of the unfortunate weightiness of its sheer lightness upon us all.

Maybe I'm superficial but the small stuff to me is sometimes interesting to explore because of its wider implications....and sometimes, I'll admit, even when it doesn't have wider implications...I can fall prey to the fatal insignificance of its charm. ;-)...

Yes, I am guilty (and more than once) of just sitting on the dock and shooting the breeze with no higher purpose in mind. ;-)

PS: I don't give a damn who Tiger beds...that's between himself and his wife....life is complicated.

Sitting on the dock of the bay....

Lynn writes, with those particular insights of hers that I so much enjoy, "Maybe I'm superficial..."

You may be many things, darlin', but superficial isn't one of them.

It really is just that, "...life is complicated." :-)

And people... sometimes.

some things never change

“The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition. In America, this system is carried to the point where a man who can knock a small white ball into a series of holes in the ground with more efficiency and skill than the anyone else thereby gains social access to the President of the United States.”

“And when [his] time ends – as it must – and the celebrity still lives – as he may – from time to time it may be asked, ‘Remember him?’” From “The Power Elite”, C. Wright Mills, 1956.

SicPreFix

I don't entirely disagree. If I were writing this piece, I am sure it would be absolutely brilliant with no typos or typos or typos and it would have the vigour you seek.

However, too many commenters were complaining that the Tyee was writing about this issue at all, arguing that it's all so much fluff. The issue peels back one tiny part of the glorious curtain that the marketeers have placed in front of us so that we don't see what lies behind and despair.

Leaving that aside, what Lynn says about the interconnectedness of things is true as well. Just because something doesn't fit our mold of Really Very Greatly Important Stuff doesn't mean it isn't worth considering. Our brains are pretty complex organs. We can handle a bit of fluff once in a while too.

Why?

Because sex is offered as a way of accessing the famous, the successful and celebrities. While the main beneficiaries are men, I recall a quote a few years ago from musician-guitarist Bonny Bramlett that she "got laid a lot more after she won a Grammy."

This has been going on for years. I think people get worn down from turning aside offers. They are busy people with lots of stress and demands on them and inevitably give in. And that partner and that tryst may become an escape, so what might have been a one-night stand becomes an ongoing affair. Thus you get the situation we have here with Tiger Woods.

"Great conversation here,

"Great conversation here, and I do note the concerns of those who think we should have steered clear of Tiger's tale entirely. On the other hand, I note that this story has quickly become the 'best rated' by readers."

So then, Mr. Beers, to what extent does pandering to the masses drive editorial content?

to jwstewart

Re:

"'Great conversation here, and I do note the concerns of those who think we should have steered clear of Tiger's tale entirely. On the other hand, I note that this story has quickly become the 'best rated' by readers.'

"So then, Mr. Beers, to what extent does pandering to the masses drive editorial content?"

No. I don't think of Tyee readers as 'masses' who can be pandered to. We published Vanessa's piece because (we think) it provides a valuable and critical lens on the Woods media frenzy moment. You don't agree. But the fact that it is 'best rated' means a lot of readers have found the read worthwhile.

By the way, if I WERE pandering the list that would obsess me would not be 'best rated' but 'most read.' Here are the most read recent stories on the Tyee as I type this:

Weird and Wacky HST Debate in BC's Legislature

BC First Graders Get Book Rejected as 'Racist' Elsewhere

'Sustainability' the Hot Word (Again) at NDP Convention

The Girls Can Jam

Is Canada Criminally Negligent on Climate Policy?

i call classist bias!

Because it deals with a celebrity athlete, this article is too good for The Tyee? Unlike most of the people who have commented, I think this article is absolutely worthwhile and has every right to take up space here. It approaches a timely situation critically, which, if I’m not mistaken, is what The Tyee is all about.

Popular culture is worth analysis and discussion because it is just that – popular. Cultural product widely consumed affects our society at large and we should welcome, not berate, those who approach even the most widespread and salacious stories with a critical eye. Plenty of places are covering the climate talks, wars in the Middle East, and other Serious, Important And Valid Matters, but for all the coverage of this Tiger Woods situation, I imagine most of it is sensational rather than critical, making this article all the more necessary. Yes, the analysis could have been done more vigourously, but I appreciate the effort made.

Of course some Tyee readers are too discerning to concern themselves with something as distasteful and banal as popular culture. That it’s appreciated by the masses means it’s beneath them, I realize, but they ignore such analysis at their peril. If fluff is so terrible, why is it so popular? The popularity of pop is not accidental. I’m sure we can all agree that there are massive corporate and political forces at work that drive that popularity. You may be too smart to buy a watch because Tiger tells you to, or sign up for the military thanks to a sex video game, or starve yourself because you read fashion magazines, but popular cultural product is powerful powerful stuff and we can’t all be so blessed and educated as to render ourselves immune. Lots of people respond to Tiger, Angelina, and countless other celebrities because of their carefully crafted corporate images. How on earth is that not a conversation worth having?

Clearly, Tiger, or celebrity, must mean something to all of us here, even those who claim he/it means nothing, or else why would we take the time to respond so enthusiastically to this article?

And for the record Vanessa, I read enjoy all of your articles. Keep up the good work.

GIven the latest...

Reading 24 hrs today in a waiting room and I see there are now six (ex-)lovers of Woods talking to the media. He apparently likes sex. A lot of it. And getting married did not change his habits. I feel sorry for his wife an their two children.

tail catches a Tiger

Yep how surprising... a famous, powerful married male is caught with too many girlfriends on the side! Once again tail caught a male by his tail, poor Tiger.

Once again

...you've got a thing about Jolie. Girl, look into that. Someone could think you've crafted this tale solely to bitch about her! Funny how anything goes, unless it is her... and then you're in this time warp-where you think Jolie was?
So talk about appearances-but there's no mention of Tiger's wife. Because you are assuming she was not in this marriage for the money? Just like so many people assumed Tiger was great? Since when is advertising truth?
What a wasted opportunity.