Tiger By The Tail

What to make of the Tiger Woods situation? As a public relations advisor, I thought his statement was measured and credible. But will it work?

Well, there are several problems. First, the statement certainly should have come earlier. His initial silence created its own storyline, making the story all-the-bigger. A great quote in this regard comes from a New York Times article on the topic, from a fellow crisis communications practitioner, Michael Paul:

“My advice to Tiger is pretty simple,” Paul said. “Own it, say it yourself, say it yourself with full conviction and responsibility and get it out of the way.

“You have an opportunity to change rumor and innuendo into truth. Moving past fear and doubt — that’s something they did not do well during the first 24 hours.”

Then there is the fact that -- depending on what you believe -- Woods has continually postponed, and then canceled altogether, interviews with the Florida Highway Patrol. Mistake. This feeds another storyline, i.e., "Why won't Tiger meet with police?" (one example, here). Granted, part of the problem may be that he's a bit pissed at the whole bunch of them, since some of the public statements from local police department -- including that Tiger's injuries were "serious," when he had already been released from the hospital -- helped to feed the initial media frenzy.

Advice: put emotions aside. Meet with them even if you don't have to, even if you're not required to by law. Put that storyline behind you. Sometimes you have to take proactive steps beyond what is legally required to satisfy the court of public opinion.

Finally, there is the most troubling cloud on the horizon for Tiger: the supposed other woman in an alleged affair, Rachel Uchitel. She has denied anything went on between them -- and has vowed in the past that she's not the "kiss-and-tell" type (Daily News story, here). But for some inexplicable reason, she flew from New York to Los Angeles on Sunday to meet with... celebrity lawyer Gloria Allread.

Seeking legal counsel itself is not the odd part: she's entitled to representation just like anyone else, particularly if she is being defamed in the National Enquirer and elsewhere. But if you're trying to keep your head down and protect your legal rights, do you hire a L.A. attorney best known for her television appearances? In my business, the first thing we do is check out the media savvy of opposing counsel to get a sense for how the other side might handle the public aspects of a high-profile legal issue. Uchitel's motives may be totally pure, but it may also be the case that she realizes her "window of infamy" won't be open forever, and is looking for advice on how to cash in.

(Which, by the way, would be another sad example of how our reality show chickens have come home to roost. Tiger should hope the Real Housewives of New Jersey crash President's Obama's speech on Afganistan this week -- in a balloon -- to knock his story right out of the headlines.)

But seriously, some additional advice to Tiger: prepare for Uchitel looking for ways to keep herself in the public spotlight, and "game-out" a plan to manage the resulting public attention. You don't have to respond to every allegation, and you don't have to say much... but you do have to have a strategy to respond.