TOP 100 NEWSPAPER SITES
| |||
|
| |||
| |||
|
| |||
| Forget moralising golf nuts. Silence is Tiger's most exciting statement yet | Marina Hyde It's hardly Malcolm X, but by shunning the penance farce Woods is finally putting principle before advertising contractsUntil what we shall refer to as The Unpleasantness, the only real criticism you heard of Tiger Woods was that he was no Muhammad Ali. Not that you were especially likely to hear that, depending on the circles in which you moved – you could traverse very many fairways indeed without overhearing anyone say "if only he'd treat the establishment like Ali did". (Although at several of the more picturesque links courses, they probably still use the styling Cassius Clay.)Nevertheless there are those, like the brilliant sportswriter Dave Zirin, who have long lamented Woods's apolitical stance. Years after the Masters winner's green jacket was first put over his shoulders at Augusta – a club which only began admitting black members in 1991 – some remained frustrated by his choices. In one questionable advert for his Nike sponsors, a rainbow coalition of children stood up one by one and declared "I am Tiger Woods" – a scene explicitly modelled on the end of Spike Lee's Malcolm X, when each child says "I am Malcolm X"."If Woods deems the black freedom struggle appropriate enough to exploit while selling Nike products," Zirin observed, "then he ought to highlight it in more relevant ways as well."Others concurred, most notably when Woods failed to comment after a Golf Channel presenter joked that young players trying to break into the game should "lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley". "Because of who he is," opined ESPN's Scoop Jackson, "Tiger Woods has the power to make people listen. Not just hear his words – but embrace what he has to say … It's a stand he needs to take because people who change the world eventually have to take stands."Of course, there were those who responded to such prodding by demanding to know why Tiger should have to speak out. Just because the trailblazing boxer many regard as the greatest sportsman of all time was also the most electrifying political force, there was no sense in which Woods had to "live up" to him. Wasn't keeping one's head down while being the greatest golfer in the world the most eloquent rejoinder to the racist and determinedly ignorant?As I say, all that was before The Unpleasantness. Now you can scarcely move for people clamouring for Tiger Woods to speak up – and his continued silence is becoming easily the most exciting statement he has ever made. Modern life is littered with the apologetic posturings of stars, and in a world where meaningless public penance is the norm, it's rather inspiring to find someone refusing to play ball.Certainly police involvement in the hydrant collision and subsequent golf-club-assisted rescue forced that brief "transgressions" statement 10 age-long days ago, in which Woods set out his position by stating "there is an important and deep principle at stake which is the right to some simple, human measure of privacy". But since then, nothing. No comment, not even a sighting.It is sending people quite demented. First it was the journalists, whom nothing enrages quite so much as someone declining to talk to them (though it must be said the injunction tourism his lawyers indulged in yesterday is deserving of contempt). But now it is the sponsors who are declining to offer supportive statements on their formerly golden boy, whose career course earnings total $92m but whose endorsements have seen him estimated a billionaire.The thing about stagey public penance is that everyone does it these days – even soi-disant free spirits like Kate Moss. When the model was secretly filmed having a few lines of coke, a lifestyle which a clued-up tween would have assumed she'd been indulging in perfectly happily for years, it wasn't the exposé that depressed one. It was the stereotypical public apology, the tactical rehab visit, the studied humility. Until then, Kate Moss was the woman who had realised that silence was the most intriguing statement of all. Soon she was sending up her comeback in a Virgin mobile ad, of all infra-dig mundanities, and now she talks all the time. She's infinitely duller for it.Naturally, though, it brought the sponsors running back, and one can only guess at the mounting pressure from Woods's own backers for Tiger to begin the painstaking image rebuild, by which is meant performative contrition, agreeing to be interviewed by Oprah or Barbara Walters, sending oneself up in ads – all the little ways civilised society has devised to extract its pound of sorry from transgressing public figures.Yet why should he apologise endlessly? No doubt he has barely said anything but "sorry" in private for the past fortnight, as well he might, but who on earth cares what he says in public? Moralising golf nuts? They should grow up.In his only brief statement, Woods's contempt for the farce of public penance shone through. Perhaps only someone who has spent so much of his career kissing up to corporate sponsors can see the contrition industry for what it is: a business. Ratings for Oprah, triple exposure for his advertisers – I hope he refuses the lot. No one's exactly going to go hungry here. If Tiger Woods has finally found an "important and deep principle" more valuable to him than an advertising contract, then that's a coming of age of sorts.Marketing & PRTiger WoodsGolfCelebrityUnited StatesAdvertisingKate MossMarina Hydeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Madagascar leader abandons deal Madagascar's leader Andry Rajoelina abandons a power-sharing peace deal, as a military prime minister start work. news.bbc.co.uk |
Finland shooting: four reported dead as gunman opens fire at shopping mall in Espoo Four people are reported to have been killed and one injured after a gunman opened fire in a Finnish shopping mall. telegraph.co.uk |
Iran bomb blamed on US and Israel Iran's state media accuse Israel and the US of being involved in a bomb attack which killed an Iranian physicist in Tehran. news.bbc.co.uk |
Iran nuclear plant set to open Iran's first nuclear power plant will be operating by mid-2011, Iranian and Russian officials say. news.bbc.co.uk |