Tiger Woods’ Public Apology: Fake but Very Efficient

After about three months of the most intense speculation about the steps he might take to make his comeback, Tiger Woods finally broke his silence with a 13 ½-minute public apology in front of select media representatives, family and friends. The entire apology was taped by one single video camera and broadcast live all over the planet – therefore the kind of mixed reactions it generated shouldn’t probably come as a surprise.

For starters, Woods said all the right things in apology, crisis management experts point out: he admitted he had cheated on his wife, owned up to his past mistakes, said he knew he had let many people (fans and sponsors included) down, promised he would turn over a new page, get help and overall become a better person. From a strictly theoretical point of view, Woods did everything by the book, including showing some emotion as he stifled a sigh at one point or hugged his mother when the entire thing was done. In real life, though, no one can’t apply theory just like that – not even Tiger Woods.

The one thing that the public apology lacked was real emotion, it is being said. It was clear that Woods was reading the words he had read and rehearsed many a time before he went on air, that he knew exactly where to pause or gaze “meaningfully” at the camera and which words to stress. Moreover, several media outlets point out, a “public” apology can only be called that if it’s “public” – and this certainly doesn’t apply to the dozen of people gathered on foldable chairs, most of them coming from Woods’ camp and, as noted above, only a few that were tied to the media and who had been forbidden to ask any questions before Woods came out.

“The nature of the proceedings – the limiting of admission to a few friends, the refusal to entertain any queries, even from a set of golf writers who have been egregiously kind to him – suggested that Woods is still determined to have things on his own terms. Which calls into question just how much he’s changed, or whether he even thinks he needs to. He and his people constructed a very profitable image. And now it seems they’re trying to construct another one: a repentant man dealing with an addiction. There may be some truth to this version of Woods – there was some truth to the old one – but until he becomes an entity other humans can interact with, as opposed to a museum piece to gape at, the questions about what’s behind the artifice will linger. This staged appearance was just a slightly different message in the same format: one-way, controlled, calculated, and with a strong dose of personal self-interest,” Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post says.

“In typical Tiger fashion, his long-anticipated coming out was a tightly controlled event, with only one camera and select media allowed inside. Questions were banned and, unfortunately, none were shouted out anyway. It was also a formal, nationally televised affair that lacked any real raw emotion. Woods, dressed in a suit blazer and starched lavender oxford shirt, stood like a politician behind a podium and read prepared remarks. His wife, Elin, was a no-show. Woods confessed to his adulterous affairs in a 15-minute [sic] apology before a small group of family and friends in Florida. The most touching moment came at the end, when Woods gave his mom a kiss and a long hug,” the Boston Herald also believes.

As it happens, the way things stand right now, Woods had no other choice than to go down this route, with a scripted apology, which will presumably be followed by actions to “speak louder than words,” as the saying goes, other media experts claim. Since this was an arranged press conference, it was only natural that the script itself came across as scripted and rehearsed, therefore fake. What should matter is that Woods owned up to his mistakes, promised to make amends, said he would seek treatment and, on a professional level, continue charity work and, someday, even come back to the world of golf. The way people receive his apology is, at the end of the day, entirely dependant on who’s watching it.