As it always has, Saturday Night Live produced skits this past weekend that poked fun at several stories currently headlining the recent news. One skit that stood out satirized the amount of media coverage that Tiger Woods has accrued due to his unusual behavior. At first, all we knew was that he backed into a tree with his car in the middle of the night. Then, we found out that he was slightly apologetic for doing something wrong. Days later, it surfaces in the news that he had actually been cheating on his wife and had lied about it. As of today, we find that Mr. Woods had been “unfaithful” with more women than previously thought. Tiger, who is married to former Swedish model Elin Nordegren with whom he has two kids, had been reported of having romancing as many as twelve women.
This past weekend, Saturday Night Live produced a skit where Tiger is making a public statement about his current situation. The joke: He needs to be saved from his wife before she hurts him. I must admit, I do think it is a funny skit. However, I can’t help but feel guilty knowing that what Tiger did was serious, and that the media is simply using it for entertainment and then laughing it off. Coincidently, Rihanna was the musical guest for the night. It was only months ago that Rihanna herself had been physically and emotionally injured by ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, making the Tiger skit even more questionable in taste.

Skit #1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BVXiHh95Tc

On a related note, another skit that SNL showed was one in which Governor Mark Sanford, Senator John Ensign and former senator John Edwards discuss Tiger’s affair. The joke here: that their extramarital affairs didn’t get anywhere near the same media coverage as Tiger’s is. As the SNL actors said of their characters: All three of the politicians they played “broke their own vows and violated the public’s trust.” It’s quite stunning when we really think about the message that this SNL skit is conveying about the media. These politicians did very scandalous things, yet suffer relatively little consequence by the media.

Skit #2: http://current.com/items/91675934_snl-mocks-media-for-ignoring-political-affairs-while-reveling-in-tigers-video.htm

Finally, on a good note for Tiger, Nike has decided to stand by him in spite of the acknowledgement of his affairs. Nike Chairman and co-founder Phil Knight said stuff like “the controversy surrounding Woods was ‘part of the game’ in signing endorsement deals” and “when his career is over, you'll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip, but the media is making a big deal out of it right now.” Of course, they’re trying to minimize any collateral damage due to Tiger’s behavior while maximizing profits. However, the combination of all of these things going on ought to make us as a society wonder, what is it that we prioritize? Apparently, morals went out the window for good entertainment and profit. Additionally, because these are males who are the center of the news stories, the stories are laughed about and then shrugged off.

Ruben Angeles KIN338I.S1 TTh 9:45-10:45am