http://www.easternecho.com Chances are you don’t know who Charlie Pierce is. Don’t worry, that’s a good thing. Pierce is an award-winning journalist, an author, a frequent contributor to the Boston Globe sports section and a regular on numerous NPR talk shows. en-us Gryphon 2.2.1-dsw (woodward)/Foundry5 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 13:55:39 -0500 webmaster@easternecho.com http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/346 Charles Pierce’s Tiger Woods article was originally written for the April 1997 issue of GQ, not Esquire. http://www.gq.com/sports/profiles/199704/tiger-woods-profile Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:51:15 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/346 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/347 While I don’t entirely agree, I want to compliment you on the first article I’ve seen about Tiger’s affairs that asks some intelligent and important questions. I confess that I had not read anything about this topic until this weekend – his private life isn’t any of my business and infidelity is a much too common weakness. However, as the feeding frenzy continued in the press I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I agree with your premise that the PR firm probably wrapped him up tighter than a top. However, I hope (a lot) that the the journalists would have exposed the story if it had been about something more important than an immature and spoiled golf star. I think the most important thing you have pointed out is the ability of PR companies to make things disappear or never come to light. Unfortunately, our current political system is packed full of these companies, to the point where it is difficult to tell what is real. I hope journalists (the few that are still out there) will continue to dig for the important information, especially when a PR firm is trying very hard to keep it under wraps. Thanks! Dianna Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:22:03 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/347 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/349 In a similar vein, I’ve often wondered where the metastory is of sports journalism’s failure to discuss steroid use in MLB before testing made it a totally unavoidable topic. Guys who spent their careers hanging out with baseball players had NO idea before testing? More likely hundreds of reporters simply didn’t have the courage to break an unpleasant story. Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:25:50 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/349 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/354 After Tiger Woods’ secret lifestyle was exposed in a series of reports over the last two weeks, it has become one of the biggest news stories of the year and it is worth exploring why it caught so many of us by surprise. The story is much more than just the number of women the young golf great bedded; it also encompasses issues of race, addiction, family, responsibility, image, wealth, talent and the age-old question of what is love. There were other sports writers besides Charles Pierce who didn’t join in the chorus of ‘Tiger is God.’ In his April 22, 2001 nyt article, Robert Lipsyte wrote, “I feel I am supposed to love Tiger Woods, and I need to know why I don’t.” http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/sports/perspective-one-writer-s-tiger-woods-problem.html Not everyone fell for Tiger’s mystique, but their opinion wasn’t the one written in the press. Now we know that inside the mighty Tiger there was a little cub, insecure and underdeveloped, just waiting for a chance to spring free. Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:40:04 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/354 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/356 Leonard Shapiro, in today’s Washington Post (12/14/2009), who covered professional golf for the past 20 years discusses among his fellow golf writers what they knew about Tiger Woods’ “extracurricular activities.” “As for the golf media that helped hoist him up there in the first place, we’re probably all guilty of perpetuating that image of the squeaky clean champion, generous philanthropist, adoring son, exemplary father and loving husband. But to those who say we gave Woods a free pass to protect that facade, I would strongly disagree.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/14/AR2009121401836.html?hpid=topnews Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:33:28 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/356 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/357 Sports reporters create their own idols….for whatever reason. It it has been clear that the legend of squeaky clean Tiger was one perpetuated by the media. It makes me think of the old line from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance…. When the legend becomes fact….print the legend. Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:46:16 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/357 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/358 “The Coming of Tiger Woods, Sports’ Next Messiah” by Charles Pierce GQ cover, April 1997. The cover shows a story on Safe Sex by Martha Lear on how to cheat on your wife! http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/gq/396-1.jpg Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:42:09 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/358 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/365 Adam – Thanks so much for the kind words. People like you give me hope. Sincerely, Charles P. Pierce Fri, 01 Jan 2010 13:55:39 -0500 http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/comment/view/365