I really won’t spend an inordinate amount of time discussing the Tiger Woods incident over the Thanksgiving holiday. I will, however, do a couple things. The first is that, as usual, Sam Borden at LoHud has a piece well worth reading that succinctly summarizes the issues of celebrity, publicity, and privacy. I think another thing is worth considering, while gone for the last few days and unaware of it being discussed someplace, is this: does anyone realistically think that, were he not Tiger Woods–rich, famous, living in an exclusive gated community–he would have been able to dodge police questioning for several days? If he were an average person of color, or perhaps even an everyday person of any color, that Woods would not have been questioned at length by the police as soon as possible after the accident?
What transpired, and what background there might or might not be to this story, truly is something private and between Woods and his wife. I have been pretty consistent about this, including others such as Sarah Palin and her daughter’s pregnancy last Fall. I’m not a scandal-sheet guy. However, worth considering is the degree to which wealth and privilege stemming from worldwide celebrity has afforded Woods a buffer zone that most other people simply would not have had should they have been involved in an early-morning one-car accident and been described as unconscious lying at the side of a quiet street.
That, and not what led to the accident, is what strikes me as most fishy.
I like Sam’s take on it too. I wish more people would feel that way.