The Need for Tiger to Speak

While Tiger Woods is not a political figure nor does he hold public office, there still seems to be a demand for Tiger to publicly speak about the reported relationships with women outside of marriage. Being in the spotlight does seem to make any celebrity a public figure and with that comes the responsibility to communicate with them. My personal stance is that Tiger should not have to say a word about what he did or didn't do, but I completely understand the need for him to speak out in order to save his image. As we discussed exigence and the rhetorical situation in class, there is a clear demand and need by the public to hear from Tiger himself that what is being reported is either true or false. Without a response from Tiger than the exigence is left unanswered and people either start to lose their image of Tiger or start to assume everything they hear is true (if the exigence isn't answered by the demanded person, then it will be filled by the only available source).

The article compares the Tiger Wood's incident to the 2003 Kobe Bryant infidelity incident. Kobe is today seen in a positive light with the issue almost completely ignored and behind him, but Tiger isn't taking the same route that Kobe did. Kobe was straight forward and held a press conference to answer the exigence that existed at that time. By meeting the exigence head on, Kobe was able to get through the incident (albeit not quickly) and get to where he is today in the public's eye. Will Tiger have this issue put behind him as well? I can't imagine it will be unless he meets the exigence head on and speaks out to save his public image.

http://www.daily49er.com/opinion/tiger-not-out-of-the-woods-until-he-makes-public-disclosure-1.2117759