Alan Good
TIGER WOODS' tightly-scripted, 14-minute apology has had scorn poured on it from the more cynical elements of the press, but the columnists at some of America's top newspapers have taken a somewhat sympathetic view.
The New York Times and Los Angeles Times both largely rowed in behind the embattled golf superstar, who apologised for his infidelity but did not state when he would return to the sport. However, the Daily News struck a cautionary note, while the Wall Street Journal had a somewhat sarcastic take.
New York Times - "Vulnerability in a disciplined performance"
"If nothing else, Woods’s transfixing mea culpa on Friday was yet another sign of the topsy-turvy inversions in public life, where celebrities are held to the standards of elected officials, and elected officials indulge themselves like Hollywood movie stars.
"It was hard to fault Woods’s performance, even after all the caviling about timing his announcement in the middle of a golf tournament and the ban on reporters’ questions. He looked stricken, and at one point, apologizing while staring straight into the camera, he seemed on the verge of welling up.
"Yet he managed to deliver, smoothly, without almost any hesitation or stumble, a long, comprehensive apology that addressed many of the questions that have consumed the news media since he disappeared from view for some three months.
"It was a makeshift setting, but there was nothing stinting or perfunctory about his apology, and that made sense: there is nothing stinting or perfunctory about his golf game. Woods is a champion known for both single-minded, grinding attention to detail and the occasional creative, surprising play.
"His apology may have seemed out of sync with his button-down public demeanor, but it was very much in line with his sportsmanship. And that’s something that no athlete — or politician — can match."
Los Angeles Times - "Tiger Woods makes the best of a sorry situation"
"Once upon a time, we measured athletes only by performance. Now, the new litmus test is quality of apology. Tiger Woods stood up Friday and said he has flaws. We all have flaws, but millions care about his.
"He lives in an era of A-Rod and Mark McGwire and congressional hearings. Athletes used to think that being one meant never having to say you're sorry. Now, it means learning how. Woods clearly has.
"in retrospect, journalistic grilling was less essential here. The necessary ground was covered. Quite frankly, there are times when demands by the media are less about information-gathering than they are about media ego.
"All this being said, this was also about a businessman, trying to get back to business. The sorrow for the pain he has caused seemed sincere. So did the desire to rehabilitate his personal life.
"Tiger Woods told us, as articulately as any athlete to date, that he was sorry, that he will do better. We will hold him to that"
Wall Street Journal - "Maybe we all need rehab"
"Even with the networks treating it soberly and sotto voce like a lunar landing or an inauguration, The Tiger Apology was pretty goofy. This was 21st-century personal humiliation, carefully managed, manicured, and administered for maximum global impact. After three months of mystery, Mr. Woods was no longer laying low. Somewhere, Don Draper was smoking a Lucky, rolling his eyes in disgust.
"The truth is, everyone in this overcooked spectacle needs to calm down a notch. Mr. Woods should curb his combativeness, and the rest of us need to quit shrilling that we have hatched the perfect genius formula for his redemption. As the screenwriter William Goldman famously said about Hollywood, nobody knows anything.
"There have been oodles of celebrity scandals, but there's never been a case just like Mr. Woods's, certainly not in such a turbocharged gossip era. There is no template, no "Hugh Grant" strategy. The whole thing is deeply weird; there's disgust but fascination; severe consequences but no crime. We don't even think Donald Trump knows what to do—and he knows everything."
NY Daily News - "Tiger Woods begins the fight to get his good name back, but only time will tell"
"Woods came across Friday as a man who really had just come from 45 days of therapy and was on his way right back. Whether this was his intent or not, Woods came across clearly as a troubled man, one with profound problems - and perhaps addictions - beyond all the women in his life.
"Mostly, Tiger Woods sounded, and looked, like a man desperate not to be the world's punch-line any longer, no matter how much he wanted this to be about truth and beauty and values and decency and even Buddhism. At least with that, he was completely honest and sincere. Unless he was lying to himself and the world Friday, even he can't like the slob he became.
"The real bottom line here? If Woods didn't really believe what he was saying, he ought to. Maybe the person who should pay closest attention to everything he said once he was in front of the blue drapes is Tiger Woods himself."
