Posted in The Soapbox
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08/30 2010

Ryan Ballengee: PGA Was Right To Strip Peyser’s Credential After Tiger Scene

Posted by Ryan Ballengee.

(This post comes courtesy of Ryan Ballengee from Waggle Room, )

The day after Tiger Woods & Elin Nordegren made their divorce official in a Panama City, Florida, court, Woods somberly faced questions from reporters at Ridgewood Country Club. The New Jersey club playing host to The Barclays would be remembered as the first touranment of Tiger’s post-divorce career.

Woods’ press conference was held outdoors after the Wednesday morning pro-am, a day later than his typical presser slot for obvious reasons. By all accounts, Woods was greeted by reporters who asked him questions about his game and the impact his divorce had and will have on his form.

Six questions into the gathering, Woods was asked about the People Magazine announcement teasing a tell-none interview with his ex-wife. The questioner, Andrea Peyser from the New York Post, engaged Woods in this exchange:

ANDREA PEYSER: Tiger, in today’s People Magazine Elin describes the end of your marriage like a death where she feels grief, she hopes to forgive one day. I’m wondering, do you still love her?

TIGER WOODS: I wish her the best in everything. You know, it’s a sad time in our lives. And we’re looking forward to — in our lives and how we can help our kids the best way we possibly can. And that’s the most important thing.

ANDREA PEYSER: Do you still love her?

TIGER WOODS: That’s the most important thing.

Based on an observer account given to Press Coverage, Peyser was not satisified with Woods’ response. (Welcome to the club, champ. It’s been this way for a long time.) She peppered Woods at least one more time with the same question. Woods again did not acknowledge her question and, apparently, neither does the record.

During the pro-am round itself, Peyser actually walked out into the fairway where Woods was playing – a forbidden practice unless invited by a player – and tried to interview him right then and there.

The criticism in media circles aware of the incident was high. As a result of her petulence, Peyser had her credential stripped by the PGA Tour. She writes about it today in her NYP column, trying to rally support for herself – a real one person rally.

“I was cast out of Tiger’s lair because I repeatedly asked the Great One a ticklish question at a press conference: “Do you still love your wife?” He refused to answer.”

He sure did, and Woods doesn’t have to answer, much less acknowledge questions asked of him. Dodging a question is pretty easy to do and happens with some frequency. But it was more than that. She broke protocol.

“Tiger and his enablers don’t like to admit he’s a public figure and a role model who behaved like a slippery politician. So I treated him as such.”

Peyser tries to justify her actions by saying that since Tiger wasn’t faithful to his wife that he should answer a clear trap question from a reporter just begging to get a quote. Peyser clearly has never been to a Tiger presser, or a golf tournament. Tiger doesn’t give good quotes and rarely caves into such lines of questioning.

She was out of place and out of line. Peyser clearly believes it is her duty as a reporter to be as much of a pest to public figures with whom she takes issue. On the website promoting her book entitled Celebutards, her MO is supposedly describes “lazy and egotistical stars with too much money, fame, leisure time, and media attention, but too little common sense or knowledge, who love to spout off on topics about which they have zero expertise.”

In other words, Peyser feels that she can lump Tiger Woods with Kim Kardashian (sex tape), Paris Hilton (sex tape, drugs), and other such celebrities. And therefore, it is her Call of Duty to try to embarrass him. Her agenda wasn’t to report. Her agenda isn’t to report. It is to be catty.

At the release party for her Celebutard book, Peyser was quoted by her own paper’s Richard Johnson as saying, “If these people just acted and performed – just shut up and did their jobs like they’re supposed to – there wouldn’t be a book and I wouldn’t have anything to do!”

No, wrong, Ms. Peyser. With Mr. Woods, you tried to create and are still desperately trying to make something out of a total fail of an effort at inserting yourself into the story. She frequently engages in namecalling – including referring to now ABC News host Cristiane Amanpour as the “CNN slut.” Woods was right to brush off such a transparent instigator.

Curious that part of what Peyser rails against is people who “spout off on topics about which they have zero expertise” because she exhibited no such expertise on the topics of reporting, ethics, or dignity in this situation. Confounding is that Peyser has actually won awards for her work, the last such honors coming in 2005.

Of course, she has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor. Of course.

Post editor-in-chief Col Allan described her as “a rabid New Yorker” for a NY Magazine profile. Great, it’s bad enough that Yankee fans invade every American League stadium – particularly my home of Baltimore. Now I gotta have some raging columnist invade my other loves, too?

Here’s the deal, Ms. Peyser. There’s a SOP in every walk of reporting. Golf is no different. You brought your brand of manufactured outrage and tabloid hypocrisy to the golf course, hoping to capitalize on a story that you probably have little or no background covering. You thought it was your right to harass a pro golfer at his job because you disagree with what he did in his marriage.

There are about sixty people on the planet that agree with what Woods did, and few of them actually have gotten on Woods’ case about it publicly. A heckler might get their voice through the ropes, but not their person. A credentialed reporter is there to gather a story, not be one. The PGA Tour was right to identify you and withdraw your credential.

To go back, complain about it publicly, and lie about it in printed form shows that the right call was made.

I’ll be by your house tomorrow to bug you for a comment on this report.

(Ryan Ballengee writes all things golf at the popular site Waggle Room, part of the SBN network)

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Posted on August 30, 2010 at 4:18PM

 

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  1. John Lewis
    08/30 2010

    There is an ocean of difference between the press asking Richard Nixon how much he knew about the Watergate cover-up and the press asking an adulterous pro golfer if he still loves his wife. If one still has to try and explain this to anyone calling themselves a journalist, well . . .

  2. Dan Brown
    08/30 2010

    Sorry! (for being a Yankees fan that invades Camden Yards)

  3. Breaking 90
    08/30 2010

    I can’t argue with Peyser losing her credentials, or Ryan’s attitude about her, but, I think this issue is not as cut and dried as some perceive it to be.

    If sports media types keep letting the subject dictate the story, when do they stop being journalists and when do they become enablers, or worse, extensions of PR and marketing efforts?

    Too many athletes nowadays have figured out that they can pretty easily control a story and their coverage simply by deciding what they will/won’t say, and in some cases, they can even force the media to help whitewash past transgressions *cough* roethlisberger *cough*

    They can get away with this, because there are too many people willing to concede to whatever demand simply because they want the story or don’t want to be left out

    Criticize Andrea Peyser all you want, she might be sports “journalism’s” last hope

  4. Andrea Peyser: You Ask Stupid Questions and Deserve to Get Kicked Out, Boom Roasted.
    08/30 2010

    [...] Ryan Ballengee of Press Coverage via Waggle Room wrote up a great piece yesterday about it, concluding with this: [...]

  5. Sean
    08/30 2010

    Stepping unto the fairway? Are you kidding me? What kind of idiot thinks they can walk out into the fairway whenever they please. I don’t see journalists walking to first base, the foul line, or the penalty kick spot in the middle of a game. I think taking her press credentials was the least they could do. If I was an event organizer I would not want her at my event, understanding some basic protocol is important for sports journalists. This is not Paris Hilton walking out of a club or into jail, this is a live sporting event.

  6. GolfGirl
    08/30 2010

    While I personally don’t care for … OK… While I personally ABHOR the politics and personality of Andrea Peyser, I can’t help but notice that there is, in fact, a bit of hypocrisy the reaction of some of “those in media circles” who are criticizing her.

    A number of the things she’s being lambasted for are things that many golf writers, journalists and bloggers have done… or at least talked about doing… during the past 10 months.

    Of course I’m NOT talking about walking onto the fairway in the middle of a proam.

    However, you say “Peyser tries to justify her actions by saying that since Tiger wasn’t faithful to his wife that he should answer a clear trap question from a reporter just begging to get a quote.” Well, perhaps they didn’t actually pose such questions to Tiger in press conferences, but many a golf writer/blogger/journalist suggested… in myriad posts and opinion pieces… that he should answer exactly that type of question for exactly that type of reason.

    And many of the same scribes were just as quick as Peyser to “lump Tiger Woods with Kim Kardashian (sex tape), Paris Hilton (sex tape, drugs), and other such celebrities.” And many seemed to feel it was their “Call of Duty to try to embarrass him” too, writing and posting and opining about it ad nauseum. And there was surely no shortage of cattiness to be found long before Andrea Peyser… un… stuck her toe in the Tiger Balm… so to speak.

    At a recent Colin Montgomerie/Cory Pavin press conference a “credentialed golf media representative” asked Cory Pavin something to the effect of “Don’t you think the US wives will object to having Tiger on the US team” a question to which the only logical reply would have been WTF? and basically that’s how Pavin responded. Meanwhile other “credentialed golf media representatives” were peppering Monty with questions about his supposedly salacious sex life. … And I don’t think Andrea Peyser was anywhere in sight. These were golf journalists/golf bloggers/golf writers “hoping to capitalize on a story that they DID have a background in covering”. Finally, what I want to say is, I tend to feel that the high criticism Andrea Peyser has drawn in golf media circles was driven more by the fact of her being a “petulant,” middle aged, non-sexy, non-golfing interloper in our once-cloistered golf media bastion, than by anything she actually did or said.

    Let’s face it, if one of the attractive, young, female golf writers did just what Ms. Peyser did… up to and including the “fairway foray”… the reaction would probably be quite different, while she’d most likely’ve been disciplined for violating the SOP, many in “golf media circles” would be applauding her. Don’tcha think?

  7. ksniff
    08/30 2010

    Andrea is well skilled in writing columns that create a reaction whether its positive or negative. She went to the tournament to get a reaction out of Tiger rather than one that has been scripted by his PR person or agent. When he deftly sidestepped her questions during the press conference, she tried to provoke a reaction by walking onto the course. I’m sure she knew she shouldn’t do it, but that’s why she did it. And the fact she got kicked out of the tournament only made the Tour look culpable in protecting him from her direct questions to readers who don’t follow pro golf. Frankly she did what many golf writers have openly discussed doing themselves. They have no problem asking Monty the personal questions because he only comes here a handful of times a year and he doesn’t share the same status as Tiger.