Industry | 2010.02.28
The sorry business | Peter Preston
For all the talk of privacy and principles, Tiger Woods and co are driven by value rather than values
Separate the performance – hangdog, lip-trembling, glum going on morose – from the nature of the event itself. The performance, scored in newspapers worldwide like a Eurovision song contest, got all the attention. Nul points for Tiger . But the event was more significant. Sorry, so sorry, at least eight times in 14 minutes. Mea maxima culpa direct to camera, flashed around the world as though it was momentous news. And now, we\'re going over live to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Tony Blair apologising for Iraq couldn\'t have made a bigger splash.
There\'s a global market economy in news, as in so much else. The world\'s richest sportsman putting himself through the TV wringer after 15 or so extramarital performances creates an inescapable precedent: and see how the message passes along the line.
Mr Justice Tugendhat, asked in the high court to sustain a super-injunction for England\'s football captain, preventing the News of the World from splashing John Terry\'s alleged affair with the ex-girlfriend of an England teammate, seems to anticipate the waters of Ponte Vedra lapping outside his courthouse.
It doesn\'t look likely that altruism is fuelling Terry\'s anxiety to keep all this under wraps, he says. "It is essentially a business matter." Of course, fornication can\'t be deemed unlawful. " But, in a plural society , there would be some who would suggest that it ought to be discouraged … That is why sponsors may be sensitive to the public image of sportspersons whom they pay to promote their products."
Snap! We have a point of law, pragmatism – and finance. When you take cash for plugging a razor or an investment plan, you put your wider image on the line. Thus, money and public morality make a toxic mix. Gillette, Gatorade and AT&T forked out millions for Tiger Role Model Inc. Umbro and Samsung, among others, were prepared to dig deep to sign Terry. Pocket the cheque and your behaviour enters the equation.
Terry\'s conduct matters because Fabio Capello says it matters, and then dumps his captain. Like Ashley Cole \'s own imbecilities, it also matters when Chelsea\'s owner says publicly he wants less sex out of hours and more dedication in the 90 minutes he cares about. But Avram Grant, the Portsmouth manager, accused of heading into a massage parlour on an industrial estate? He barely has an owner, let alone a sponsor; nobody seems to care a damn.
For almost a decade in Britain, we\'ve been trying to make up a law on privacy. Here, though, there begins to be a rule of thumb that leaves statute trailing. The moment Tiger Woods hopped up on a pedestal, role model, serial endorser, idealised dad, was the moment he defined what Tugendhat\'s "plural society" could be asked to approve. There is no getting away from that now. His contrition extravaganza helps slot apology into a universal format. Inside or outside the confines of national law, there\'s nowhere to hide from sensitive sponsors on the march.
Should that mean paparazzi camped on lawns, wives and kids pursued? Of course not. But there is a crude balance unfolding. Tiger and Terry are inevitably anxious about "business matters", because exposure loses them millions. Ordinary people don\'t care as much, and have no fortune to lose. Their ordinariness is their protection.
Lawyers, politicians, great and good citizens indulge in paroxysms of indignation about privacy. Many celebrities treat it as a tap you can turn on and off. But please don\'t see it as some kind of moral crusade. Much of the time, pleading guilty may avoid a club fine, or a walloping divorce settlement. And, almost all of the time, the frown on the face of the Tiger, relayed worldwide, puts normal human relationships in hock to an agent and a cash register. That\'s the truth.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/[...]er-woods-apology-cash-sponsors
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