Front Page News

As a daily ritual, I peruse several online sports news sites. As I am sure, most of you do.
The usual suspects, CNNSI, FOXSPORTS, ESPN, TSN, etc...

Now if you click on each of those links above, you will find that the lead story on these SPORTS NEWS sites, is about Tiger Woods and his misdeeds, shall we say.

First of all, these are sports sites, and Tiger Woods is not an athlete, he does not play a sport. He participates in a leisure activity. He is damn good at it, the best in the world. But you don't see Tony O'Shea on the front page of any of these. Tony doesn't play a sport, but does participate in a rather difficult leaisure activity, and is the worlds best at it.

But please, save your hate mail for another time.... I'm not done yet.

Even IF Mr Woods was an athlete, these "articles" are not about his latest victory or defeat. They are about the sordid details of his private life. I hesitate to use the word private. In the time of world domination by 14 year old girls, we are subjected to Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook. Now, I am not an adolescent teen age girl. I do not need to know where all of my friends are every minute of every day. If I want to send a friend a message, I email them. Or if I have something to tell them, I pick up the phone and call.
I know. Old school.
But "journalists" and "media outlets" insist on informing us about every minute detail about every celebrities lives. Some celebrities crave the spotlight. Chad Ocho Cinco tweets while celebrating in the end zone. Britney Spears forgets her underwear. Fine. Do what you need to do to make yourself feel wanted. It's your show.
But other celebrities, like Mr Woods for example, go out of their way to maintain a private existance. Are their wishes respected by "journalists"? Or the "paparazzi"? No.

Why is this even a story worth writing about? Who the hell cares if Mr Woods slept with every member of the Baltimore Cheerleaders? I don't. Why do you?

This is a lot like a "story" from last week, where the son of Brian Burke, General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, "came out" and admitted he was gay.
Who the hell cares? Why is this a story? What you do in your own life is your business. Will it affect the way his Dad does his job? No.

When exactly did we go from reporters, who reported the facts of the story, to journalists, who insist on scrounging up discreet details about everyone's private lives?


I know I'm going to get a lot of heat here... but it had to be said.