Posted in On the DL Podcast
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02/18 2010

DL331: Tiger’s PR, Chris Chase of Yahoo! on the Olympics, Shaun White & A Lot More…

Posted by Dan Levy.
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Whenever we have a long show (run time on this sucker clears 62 minutes) I always seem to come up with a shorter write up. It’s no disrespect to our guest, Chris Chase of Yahoo’s Fourth Place Medal, but more to the point that there’s so much we discussed, I can’t remember everything when I try and do a recap. So, I’ll do my best.

First, Nick and I discuss the Tiger Woods news that he’ll be conducting a (NOT IN ANY WAY) media conference on Friday morning, with three wire services, TV camera and select friends in sports media world. Nick, like most people, thinks this is cowardly and typical of what Tiger Woods would do. If he were a changed person, he’d open it up to all media, or at the very least, allow those privileged enough to get a Golden Ticket the ability to ask questions. Basically, the media is window dressing for what could have been a recorded message thrown up on his website for the world to embed.

But I think there’s more to it. Tiger Woods can do whatever he wants. This is isn’t a Mark McGwire situation, where Tiger cheated the game of golf. Tiger cheated on his wife, and only has to apologize to her, and his sponsors. Sure, it’s good PR to apologize to his fans, but he doesn’t owe anything to the golf media, or the general interest gawking public who seem to care about this story. He could, in fact, keep quiet and freeze out any reporter who dared to ask about his personal life. He could come back to golf and never discuss it again.

But he’s not. He’s talking on Friday. And it’s on his terms, like it should be. This is good PR, folks. He’s controlling the situation. That’s what you want to do in any situation. Now, Nick takes those media folk who are planning to show up to task for bending over and taking it from Tiger. Wait, that’s a terrible analogy. Personally, if I were invited, I’d be there in a second. Sure Tiger says he’s not taking questions, but that doesn’t mean his agent won’t give additional information to those in attendance. And it doesn’t mean that Tim Finchem or another PGA or USGA official won’t take care of those reporters by giving them one-on-one reaction. There will be more news coming out of this even than just Tiger Woods’ statement.

And as for that…who cares what he has to say? As Nick points out, unless he decides to announce he’s leaving his wife and he plans to be a philanderer out in the open and those who don’t like it can go up a tree, whatever he says will be inconsequential. Except, of course, if he announces he’s taking the entire year off from golf. Which nobody expects.

So, am I the only one who thinks Tiger is handling this right?

OLYMPICS:

Chris Chase comes in to talk about the Olympics thus far. So you know, we taped this just after Lindsey Vonn won the Women’s Downhill Gold Medal. Actually, we taped it while there were still racers on the course, but all the major news outlets already called the victory for Vonn. How must those last few racers feel? They are Olympians, after all. There’s NO chance they could have the run of their lives? Why not wait the extra 20 minutes to call it?

And, yes, why did we have to go online to watch it on some foreign feed? It’s ridiculous that NBC can’t figure this out yet. So ridiculous, in fact, that we discuss if there’s something else the rest of us aren’t thinking of. Obviously the value of a primetime viewer — in actual revenue — is higher than an afternoon viewer on CNBC, but will putting the event on live preclude ANYONE from tuning in to the primetime coverage as well to see the other, Live, events? There has to be something we’re missing.

Onto actual sports, we discuss the sheer dominance of Vonn’s run and talk about the pressure she, Shaun White and Shani Davis must feel when they are expected to win Gold Medals.

Nick comes back in to follow up on that point and discuss how all three were able to beat the field, and the pressure, to take home Gold yesterday. We talk a lot about White’s insane run – after he already had won the Gold — and how cool and likable the guy seems to be. Nick and I talked yesterday, and Chris and I discuss today’s show, if we have to root for athletes because they are American. White seems like the guy who everyone can root for — no matter what country you’re from.

Housekeeping:

There is a great contest going on over at Punk on Deck. Brian is collecting all the food-related tweets from beat writers during Spring Training and giving any of us who RT them points based on their food specificity and tweet percentage. Most points at the end of Spring Training wings, er wins, a prize.

Nick and I also talk about the NBA trade deadline, and if we’d rather be Washington with a fire sale of Philly with, so far, no movement.

Thanks for leaving comments, hopefully more people will follow.

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Posted on February 18, 2010 at 8:36AM

 

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  1. Ed Wright
    02/18 2010

    Haven’t listened to today’s show but thought I would tell you that I like the new site. More importantly, it loads right away and doesn’t take 10 minutes like the old one.
    Good job.

  2. Greg
    02/18 2010

    Noticed the “media enclosure” link in the RSS for previous shows but not this one. Will it be reinstated for future posts? Perhaps a simple, dummy-proof download link could be included (like JSF). I want to avoid the evil clutches of iTunes as much as possible.

  3. Dan Levy
    02/18 2010

    It should be there on the updated version of the RSS. I accidentally set the page live before I enclosed the mp3 file, so the initial RSS push out didn’t have it.

    I hope it’s fixed for future shows. Sorry about that. Still working out the bugs.

  4. Tony Spires
    02/18 2010

    BullS***. Meh. Who cares. Good day for the U.S. Shani Davis, Lindsay Vonn, and Shaun White, all got gold, and while they’re at it, another American was on the medal stand for each event.

  5. Mitch VanBruggen
    02/18 2010

    Love the new site. Also, I have to say that your podcast always enlightens me to rational analysis of the news of the day and the media implications. Keep up the good work.

  6. On the DL with Dan Levy » Blog Archive » DL331: Tiger's PR, Chris … | TVPhoneMedia.com
    02/18 2010

    [...] View post: On the DL with Dan Levy » Blog Archive » DL331: Tiger's PR, Chris … [...]

  7. Hank Brockett
    02/18 2010

    It sounds very pie in the sky of me, especially given that some of these networks are trying to get paid to be part of cable packages, but NBC still must be considered a part of the public airwaves. Though they must be concerned with maximizing their moneymaking endeavors, networks still have a sliver of the public trust to consider. Does Canada not care about money, and that’s why they can cover the games more effectively?

    And the fact they aren’t even trying to cater to the Internet-connected, news savvy viewer means they can’t try things out and make money off of them in future Olympics. In this case, they should definitely double-dip the chip and offer coverage twice (if they intertwined the live with the taped effectively, we’d watch anyway!)

  8. Dan Levy
    02/18 2010

    Hank, You aren’t pie in the sky. The difference, from what I see, is that Canada’s coverage cost Rogers, et al $90 million and NBC put in a bid of $850 million. So the fact that they are ONLY losing $250 million is pretty incredible.

    Also, there’s an old-guard edict that primetime ratings are the only ones that count in America for real advertising dollars (well, don’t tell Oprah that, but you know what I mean). I think that’s part of NBC’s logic, that they can leverage Olympic success into deals for the future.

    Sad thing is, they’re wrong.

  9. florida health insurance
    02/18 2010

    Whatever. I couldn’t care less about Tiger’s private life. This stuff happens all the time in marriage, we simply don’t have to be subjected to it. I’m having trouble remembering exactly when Tiger said he was a saint. Can anyone give me the link to that announcement? Maybe I’m not remembering correctly, maybe all those parents just told their kids he was perfect.

  10. Anonymous
    02/18 2010

    Shaun is just amazing, because he won the sommer and winter x-games. But I think everybody that can skateboard is a good snowboarder

  11. ThunderingBlurb
    02/18 2010

    re: ad $$ and why the Olympics aren’t shown earlier on CNBC and then shown taped on NBC – I bet you that the people they sell ads too, spend more money for ‘exclusive, never been seen on American soil’ events amd NBC wouldn’t be able to wring more cash out of them if it had already been seen – even by just a dozen people. Exclusivity might be why we’re dealing with NBC.

    I’m more angry at NBC’s crappy website. Never had so much issue with what should be a no-brainer on a website.

  12. Daniela Harrelson
    02/18 2010

    You bring up some good points…I’m curious to know what you would advise in my situation. I think my fiancee could be having an affair, but I don’t have evidence. It’s more of a gut feeling. Do you think I should see about hiring a private investigator? Or should I confront him with my suspicions?

  13. Hugo Schmitt
    02/18 2010

    I definitely cannot speak regarding someone else, nevertheless I believe the press that this saga is getting is bizarre. Tiger cheated on his wife, not the game of golf. The only ones the guy needs to please is actually his family members along with sponsors. It’s crystal clear why he still must say i’m sorry and then try to make amends with Elin. His sponsors have used some huge cash marketing the guy. Aside from that, this is a private family problem and they should be allowed to take care of this behind closed doors. Everyone just doesn’t have the right to find out every single minimal detail with regards to everyones everyday living, no matter their public figure status.

  14. India Gusewelle
    02/18 2010

    I definitely can’t speak out for someone else, nonetheless It is my opinion all of the press that this saga is receiving is bizarre. Tiger cheated on his spouse, certainly not golf. Really the only ones he needs to appease is actually his relatives and sponsors. It is actually crystal clear why he must apologize and then try to make amends with Elin. His sponsors have put in a bundle advertising him. Aside from that, this is a private family problem and they really should be permitted to handle this behind closed doors. People simply doesn’t have the right to be told every single small detail about everyones life, regardless of his or her star status.