So Do we care about golf? Or just about sex and silliness?
by Bill Jempty on Dec 11, 2009 2:59 PM EST
7 comments
Was the headline for a column by Bob Molinaro of the Virginian-Pilot asks that question.
Walking through a Target this week, glancing at the magazines and tabloids displayed near the check out aisles, I caught
a partial glimpse of America.
Lined up like wanted posters, the magazine covers feature Tiger Woods, but in reality, they are a reflection of this silly country of ours.
Sex, betrayal, mistresses and promises of more mistresses - the Woods saga is the Grand Slam of salaciousness.
Can't say I'm not intrigued at least a little.
Nor am I. Prior to this post, I've done two blog posts on the Woods story. One when the accident occurred and a second two days later about how the media isn't getting the story right(and still isn't). Television and print media have long since gone overboard, and sad to say so have some golf bloggers. Some I liked or respected, Ryan here at Waggleroom and Stephie Wei, or some who I can basically do without, like the usually shallow Geoff Shackelford.
I expected shallow and or trashy from Geoff, the gossip columnists, and most of television. Others make me feel sad. I know golf is mostly at rest till 2010 but do respectable bloggers have to lose their dignity and muddy what ever decent reputations they have by adding to the gossip, reporting more than once stories that were wrong, and using those wrong stories to attack people who did nothing
wrong.
Ryan-
referred to Crane and Warren as PGA tour tough guys
Then A couple of PGA Tour pros – who most people have never heard of
Then The Slowest Golfer on Earth, Ben Crane
Then Charles Warren – the 387th ranked player in the world(Ranked at least 3,000 spots higher than Ryan)
Then You heard it here first: Charles Warren is going to be taking over for Dr. Drew
As Niblic said "You mock and belittle these guys mercilessly, and then say good for them having an opinion."
And all because you believed what that magazine said without doing any kind of checking first. Like where would someone have gone to talk to Crane recently? Check and verify? Nope, just rush to publish and criticize based on a report that looked iffy even without any checking
Way to go Ryan, was trashing people, waggleroom and then yourself worth it?
Lets see if Ryan makes this a featured post at Waggleroom rather than the trash, absent a few and far between real news golf stories and one recent post that looked like an advertisement, he continues to put up.
FanPosts are written by Waggle Room members. Viewpoints expressed do not necessarily reflect those of WaggleRoom.com and its editor, Ryan Ballengee. The Waggle Room member whose byline appears with the FanPost is solely responsible for its content.
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wait – I didn’t know we had the option between golf and sex…geez…these media types keep all the good stuff to themselves. :-)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Actually, I care
about Golf and I care about Sex, but silliness……..it has no place on a blog??? lol Oh by the way, I don’t get the article.?
Haha, this is really a sad attempt at disparaging me.
For one, you’re using one selective example of a story that EVERY major outlet reported. AP, Yahoo, ESPN – all reported on the Life & Style story. Every one of them took it as legit. I’m glad Jay was tipped off to do a bit more digging and followed up on it. We all got duped. Rumors are one thing. Attributed words to someone’s mouth is another. The old journalistic standard was that we respected the value of direct, attributed quotes. Clearly, that’s no longer a guarantee.
I like how you’ve looked over the reporting that myself, Steph, and Jay have done on this story. Steph has consulted with people that she knows in the NYC club industry, as well as with sports marketing firms, about the real details and impact of this story. Jay has been the man behind debunking Life & Style. I was the first person to interview Rachel Uchitel after the Enquirer made its allegations.
Second, I haven’t been reporting rumors as fact. (The Life & Style situation excluded.) I’ve been saying – just like Jay and others have – that the reports from TMZ, Radar, and such need to be taken as you would any other celebrity rumor. In fact, I actually spent some time debunking some of TMZ’s reports. But you’re choosing to ignore that.
Third, as I mentioned in my post about Life & Style’s issues, this is actually a news story for a variety of reasons:
Was a crime committed? Perhaps so provided Windemere PD reports.
What kind of character is Tiger Woods? There’s a serious examination that needs to be done.
What will the business and financial impact be for both Tiger Woods and the PGA Tour? Sponsors, sponsors, sponsors.
There is a self-examination component to this story. Why is the general population so interested in every palpitation of this story? Why do we project heroism on superstar athletes?
What about the future of Tiger’s philanthropy? The guy is openly committed to causes helping children. Now he is quickly being perceived as kid-unfriendly.
Fourth, I have routinely made fun on Ben Crane on this site for slow play. I mean, everytime I bring the guy up, I mock him for being a slow golfer. So now it’s offensive to you? That’s awfully selective. In fact, we make fun of a lot of people here. Bill, you’re among the people that do it. You choose to make fun of professional writers, or call them racist. It seems unfair to allege me of committing a sin if you’ve done the same.
Finally, I find it funny that you think I’m not actually covering any golf news at this site amidst this story. Take a look at interviews with Nicole Hage, Kenny Perry, stories on the Dubai Ladies Masters, the PGA Tour’s global expansion, and other stuff that I’m doing. You’re not getting that other places. But, then again, we come back to a selective view of what is actually happening here at Waggle Room.
I invite you to read everything that’s actually being printed here and think about it some more.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
Ryan, I don't see
this being a featured post. There seems to be very little difference in this post and most of the comments that are critical or in agreement with whatever the issue. Bill seems to be saying he is “above” commenting on the Tiger issue, so that’s fine. I’m sure I won’t lose any sleep over his or the others he mentioned taking some self imagined “high” road.
I sense some animosity here.....
Somehow I get the feeling Bill and Ryan are playing “Good Cop/Bad Cop”.
i saw something interesting today in the papers. it said tiger woods got
rid of his old cell phone number. now m.j. and barkley do not know his number. this is a good step. i live in nevada and these two basketball players are bad influences. let me remind you that m.j’s wife divorced him and got 160 million dollars for his ways in vegas with the women. charles barkley the same thing and being called out on a 400,000 marker right on tv. he did pay it back. i’m not sure if sir charles has been divorced but he has been linked to many women here. just my opinion. i would like for tiger wood to stay with his family and stay away from vegas for at least a year if not more. he will have a comeback.
yes i am obsessive, obnoxious, in your face and all about covering the spread. those are my good qualities.
by wolfmanshowlforever on Dec 16, 2009 8:26 PM EST reply actions
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