Leave Tiger Woods Alone

Okay, so Tiger Woods got into a rather odd accident in the wee morning hours after Thanksgiving. There was apparently some property damage, and Woods was briefly taken to a hospital to be checked out. But the media fallout ever since would have us believe that Woods's accident and subsequent reticence to make a flashy public statement is the most important thing to have taken place since, well, the last most overblown important thing, whatever that was.

Look, I understand the public's fascination with Woods, and I understand why people, media and regular folk alike, would want a full blow by blow of what happened, how it happened, and the circumstances that surrounded what happened early Friday morning. But wanting to know is a very different thing from having a right to know. Folks in the public eye are just like the rest of us, in that they are entitled not to disclose aspects of their lives to the public so long as such disclosure refusals don't involve not cooperating with law enforcement and things of that nature.

Press people so often seem to believe that the public's 'right to know' somehow trumps the individual's right to not be an open book. In the case of Tiger, it has been argued by some in the press that because Tiger works so hard at crafting a public image that allows him to make millions in endorsements and product merchandising, he therefore can't turn around now and go mute. The obvious implication being that people in the public eye who 'work the system' to their advantage forfeit the right to later keep things out of the public eye. This is crazy.

Nobody, not the press, not the public, has a right to know the circumstances surrounding Tiger's accident. If the event was such that Woods isn't even required to talk to law enforcement, then why exactly is he required to talk to anyone? The answer, of course, is that he isn't required to cooperate with the press on anything at all. And that's what the press folks don't like. As with many sports and entertainment celebrities, the press seems to believe these public figures are obligated to cooperate with them. Sorry, but in this country, individuals are the ones who decide whether to disclose things about themselves to the public, and they get to decide how to do it, when to do it, and to whom or through whom to do it. The public's insatiable appetite for gossip and juicy circumstances is not a substitute for an authentic 'right to know'. Leave Tiger alone.