Who's Business is it Anyways?

Since August of this year, my car radio has remained tuned to the local AM sports radio station for a variety of reasons. Although the initial reasoning behind this lies in the fact that this was the most convenient and effortless way to get up to date coverage of Texas football, I have since grown to appreciate the national coverage of events that it puts me in touch with. Although the station is host to shows that are locally broadcast, there are also a number of simulcasts of various popular national sports radio shows. Typically listening for the short amount of time I do spend driving each day is enough time to stay up to date on the most important local and national sports news and controversial issues. Although this is typically the case, that past few days have led to my disappointment.

Despite all of the excitement and sporting events that have taken place over the past weekend, the involvement of Tiger Woods in a car accident in the early hours of Friday morning has dominated radio coverage. In fact, this has been the only topic I have heard discussed since Friday. Although listening to the commentators continue to draw out the coverage of this event has become somewhat boring, it has led me to question the role and power that media has in relation to sports. It has indeed been interesting to hear how the angle of the story has evolved from coverage of a tragedy involving one of America's most beloved professional athletes to now merely gossip based on speculation.

Initially, the radio coverage began reporting that Tiger Woods had been hospitalized after being in a serious car accident that occurred less than a mile from his home sometime around 2:30 a.m. Friday morning. At this point, the coverage seemed to convey a great deal of concern for an athlete who has had a clean reputation both on and off the golf course. Progressively throughout the course of the day, more updates were released to the public, including an official announcement from the mayor of town in which Woods resides, regarding the physical condition of Woods and his release from the hospital. The originally so-called 'serious' car accident turned out to produce very minor injuries to Woods. Even now, there has been very little official information released to the media from Woods himself, so the media has taken it upon themselves to keep this event in the headlines.

Because of the timing of the accident, it seems logical to question the involvement of alcohol in relation to the accident. Police have since denounced this. Since then, the coverage of the car accident has produced speculations regarding Woods that may or may not have any relation to the initial news story because there has been such little factual information released for the media to feed off of. Listening to AM talk radio on my drive home from work early this evening, the coverage that originally began into Woods' car accident has turned into outrageous gossip. Questions as to whether or not Woods is involved in an abusive relationship with his wife, whether or not he has been unfaithful in his marriage, and the possibility of Woods being intoxicated at the time of the accident are but a few of the questions the original situation has spawned.

Listening to the recent coverage of the accident involving Tiger Woods has led me to question the intentions of today's media. Clearly, we rely on the media as both a source of entertainment and information. Indeed, they have done their job at providing both to their audiences at this point, but at what point should they draw the line and end the production of negative speculation. Over the past few days, I have witnessed the progression of Woods being embraced as an All-American hero into being rejected as a villain with malicious intentions (all based purely on speculation projected by or via mass media). With the intent of being informed about sports news by listening to this radio station, I found it quite disturbing to find that this has been their main topic of discussion. It will be interesting to see what becomes of Woods and his public reputation once he himself releases more information about the accident in the future and also what types of problems this media coverage has on his reputation.

Although, legally the media broadcast has the right to virtually any and all information, where is the line drawn ethically in what they produce? In certain cases, turning the beauty into the beast by the media has been completely justifiable. A solid example of this would be O.J. Simpson. In Woods case, however, there is no clear indication that any wrong has been committed, nor did it involve anyone else besides himself, yet he has been victimized as the target of negative media attention.

Prior to the case involving Woods, my curiosity involving the ethical realm of the media had been piqued earlier this year by two prior events. The first involved OSU's Dez Bryant and his questionable eligibility to compete as an NCAA athlete this season. The second involved a radio broadcast of a Lady Longhorns basketball game against UConn, when one of the Texas players was announced to be withheld from a starting position by the head coach due to her absence in classes at the university. Although athletes that wish to compete at professional or even semi-professional levels automatically subject themselves to being potential media targets, is it truly the right of the media to broadcast information regarding the lives of these individuals outside of their public performances as athletes?

Issues such as the aforementioned, however, lead me to question whether or not the relationship between the two produces mutual benefits for both parties. Athletes produce for the media, and the media produces for athletes. Questioning this issue produces only one certain answer: The media is a business and will continue seeking maximizing profits regardless of ethics.

jm