While a sycophantic media cannot be blamed for Tiger Woods’ self-proclaimed “trangressions”, the pedastal upon which Woods has been placed has been built almost solely by journalists and broadcasters myopic in the extreme.
The Australian Masters in Melbourne last month threw up a classic example.
Said to be one of the most heavily fined players on the tour due to his club throwing and on course swearing, Woods launched his club into the crowd – on the bounce – after one particularly poor tee shot. Rather than catigation, the television commentators failed completely to mention the incident while the reporter covering that night’s sports news made light of the outburst.
If almost any other player had ‘thrown his toys’ he would have felt the full fury of the assembled media throng.
But Woods appears beyond reproach.
In a sport which supposedly prides itself on decorum and good player behaviour, Woods has been let away with far too much.
Again, the media is in no way accountable for Woods’ dalliances, now said to be numbering double figures. But its lack of balance, investigative reporting and ‘dare not criticise, comment or critique’ outlook is the tip of a very large iceberg.
No-one is beyond reproach.
What to do about Mr Tew?
When all of this started back in May – the latest review of the National Provincial Championship – didn’t Steve Tew say there was a full agreement about the need to reduce the number of teams to 10?
Wasn’t there the intimation it was a unanimous decision?
If that’s the case, then he’s a bare-faced liar. As we’ve heard in recent weeks, a number of unions did not go belly-up in the face of what amounts to some serious bullying by Tew and his cronies. If the Counties CEO is to be believed, unions were asked to buy into a clause which would have prevented them from questioning the final decision or launching a challenge to that outcome.
For Jock Hobbs to come out and say Tew’s statements merely reflected what the unions had agreed to or what the NZRU Board had asked him to portray is either a cover up – or he’s still suffering from the head knocks which ended his playing days.
Tew is a survivor, of that there is no doubt. Where others would have sunk, he carries no aroma at all from a failed 2003 co-hosting debacle where his arrogance was beyond belief , several aborted revamps of the NPC, a raping of the All Black brand by introducing cash-driven offshore tests while purporting to favour player welfare … and the list goes on.
The scariest thing about this latest fiasco is Tew and company never worked through how a six-team second tier would work, and never foresaw the influence the Rugby Players’ Association would have. Blind and dumb in equal proportions. Well, maybe not so dumb – he’s still receiving his rumoured to be very high six-figure salary.
They don’t call him ‘Teflon Steve’ without reason.
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