Truth needed to be told about Tiger Woods’ car wreck

I hate celebrity news. So it should be refreshing to read the chorus of complaints about the media unfairly wallowing in the muck of Tiger Woods marital “transgressions.” Here’s what reader “w_sands” posted on an Associated Press story on our site: Woods says he let family down:”

Is this really any or our business? If any reader of this rag had anything like this going on in there lives it probably would not be known outside of their immediate social circle. And please, no feedback that because he is a celebrity we have the “right” to know. “Right” being the key word here…where are his rights? Lost because he is a celebrity? I think not!

Normally I’d wholeheartedly agree. But there are two factors about this sordid saga that, to me, actually make this celebrity story newsworthy, at least in the early days of the coverage:

The controversy was ignited by a legit news story — a car accident involving the most famous golf player in the world. The wreck raised legitimate questions. Was Tiger OK? What was the extent of his injuries? Would he be able to golf again?

The initial reports about the wreck were marred by a falsehood — that Tiger’s wife had bravely broken the windows of the vehicle with a golf club to save her husband. Thanks to TMZ, we now know this was a lie.

Once that falsehood was released publicly to millions of fans, the media was right to try to figure out what really happened.

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I’ve stopped paying attention to the most recent titillating coverage about Tiger’s alleged mistresses. I don’t care. But in the initial days after the accident, I was glad to see TMZ correct the public record about the accident and get the truth out.

(Photo credit: Keith Allison)