I observed with horror the events surrounding the “Tiger” incident this last week. I am not mortified by the actions of Mr. Woods but of the media coverage and the reaction of the general public. I find it appalling that three major newspapers in Edmonton, and I’m sure every large paper in every large centre in North America, featured the same hashed and re-hashed information about the man, including private emails, phone records, arguments with his spouse right down to the size and type of the golf club she used to whack his car. How low have we sunk as a society when the most important item on the front of our most prestigious newspapers, TV news reports and radio talk shows in the country have nothing better to report than the very private trials and tribulations of a so-called celebrity. It seems that we as a society some how feel violated because someone we had looked up to because he knows how to swing a golf club has fallen from the high pedestal we have placed him on. My goodness, is that the best we have to offer? Who the heck are we that we expect that this man, a golfer, owes us an explanation and a public apology for transgressions he perpetrated against his own family? It must be that it makes us all feel better about the skeletons in our own closets when we see others fail. I listened to a talk show the day that the story broke. People who called in where absolutely incensed that he would do such a thing, after all he seemed like such a nice guy. What makes them think that he is such a nice guy, they don’t even know him. They have no more of an idea of what he’s like than he knows what we are like. The man you see on TV and in magazines is a fabrication of the media and that is all. The real issues of the day seem to be all but forgotten. Take the so-called “Climate Gate” issue for instance. It is being largely ignored by the main-stream media. Apparently they find the lie too big to be true. Some so-called right wing newspapers are reporting on it, but because they are considered right wing they apparently have no clout or credibility with the main stream (small l) liberal world view regurgitated over and over again by larger, more influential media outlets. The fact that many so-called top climate scientists have been caught in bold faced manipulation of the facts doesn’t seem to be a big thing. As a matter of fact there are those who seem to think that a few lies here and there will not make any difference. There are many reputable scientists that still agree that the climate change models presented conclude that we are doomed to a fate worse than death. The only problem is that most of the skewed findings have been used world wide, even by honest researchers, putting into question the whole climate change model presented by even honest climatologists. Maybe I have my priorities backwards folks, but when will the scientists that lied and manipulated this data present us with an apology? When will they come forward and admit that they have skewed information in an effort to mislead the public. This is not a sports figure. These are people who are using public research funding, our tax dollars. And they are deliberately lying to divert more dollars from us, the taxpayer, into the coffers of phoney researchers in an effort to perpetuate the lie. Having said all that, I firmly believe that we are responsible for our environment. We have dominion over the earth and it’s flora and fauna, however that doesn’t give us the right to abuse that power. As stewards of the earth, we have a responsibility to conduct ourselves in such a way as to protect what we have been given dominion over and change is necesary and will will come. As for Tiger, leave the guy alone. If there is an apology forthcoming, it should be to his children and his wife. We have no right to expect anything from him except to sink that long putt and that’s all.By the way, our editor Brian Hahn promised to leave the Climate debate alone, but I didn’t.
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