I was in Manchester the night the news reported on Tiger Woods’ apology on TV.
And the UK papers the next day were filled with coverage on his 14-min speech.
I’ve always had a bit of thoughts on the whole Tiger Woods saga, but the recent Jack Neo revelations made it all the more tempting for me to finally start penning something down.
I guess it’s hard for us, as Singaporeans, to fully understand what they really mean when they say that “the whole of America stopped what they were doing for 14 minutes to watch the Tiger Woods apology live on TV”.
But now when you see people in Singapore buying the tabloids, searching for YouTube clips of the press conference, and tuning into the Chinese news just for the latest coverage on Jack Neo…you begin to understand a public’s fixation with scandals and public apologies.
Jack Neo has contextualised the Tiger Woods saga for us and made us understand how much a public can be fascinated with scandals involving a prominent local movie director…much less the richest and most famous sportsperson in the world.
Obviously there’s a lot more that I want to say, but I guess I’ll leave those thoughts for another time and place.
This is not the place to do it.
However, I’ll just say one thing: I never really understood why one needs to apologise to the public for a personal misdeed.
Do you have to apologise to the public if you’ve done something wrong to your family or friends?
As long as they resolve their issues with the relevant parties involved, e.g. wife, family, etc…then I think that’s all that matters.
It’s a private matter.
Why should we be involved?
And I’m not sure if you realised the irony of it all…but the one whom Tiger Woods should have apologised to the most wasn’t even present at his own press conference.
And after watching the Jack Neo press conference, I figure maybe Elin was smart after all to skip Tiger’s press conference.
Or maybe she was just keeping it real.
They have to apologise because they are considered role models in our society. Coz once their role has been tarnished, they lose their role model appeal & in turn lose sponsorship and/or advertisement value.
Remember hor, Jack Neo was highlighted as our role model by our then Prime Minister for his outstanding film.
I totally get what you’re saying. In fact, this is what most people would say.
But the question is – Are they apologising because they’re worried that their own personal fortunes are at risk, or are they apologising because they feel that they have let the public down by being bad role models?
Another question is – Why is a person who plays golf considered a role model in society? Tiger Woods never claimed to be a role model. He just wanted to be the best golfer in the world, that’s all.
Never considered Jack Neo a role model. A role model has more to do with character than with an “outstanding film”…if that was an outstanding film at all.
I’m not really sure if the public was really looking for an apology, but more for a response from him. Another reason would be to bring some “closure” to the matter and to ask the media to stay out of it.
“Why is a person who plays golf considered a role model in society? Tiger Woods never claimed to be a role model.
Because he built up for himself a squeaky clean image?
Sportsmen are always held up as role models or the ideals of sport dictate that they should be. These ideals stem from the Olympic values – the ultimate aim being to build a better world – from which sports take their lead today. Hence, it’s important that the sportsman upholds the ideal of fair play. Cheating on one’s spouse is still cheating and goes against what is expected of a sportsman. Tiger not claiming to be a role model doesn’t negate the fact that he OUGHT to be.
typo error “AS the ideals of sport dictate that they should be” :p