Hats off to Tiger Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg. Recently, there was controversy when Golf Channel commentator Kelly Tilghman suggested that young players on the PGA would “lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley.”

Steinberg made the following response on behalf of Woods, “Regardless of the choice of words used we know unequivocally that there was no ill-intent in her comments. This story is a non-issue in our eyes.”

This is a brilliant sound bite and message because it does the following:
1. Addresses the issue squarely.
2. Recognizes that something inappropriate happened.
3. Sends a forgiving message.
4. Minimizes the issue in such a way as to make Tiger Woods seem like a class act who transcends petty racial squabbles.
5. Keeps Woods above the fray by not having him quoted directly.
6. Contains classic sound bite elements such as absolutes and emotions, thus guaranteeing placement in multiple media outlets.

I don’t normally advise stars avoiding media comment and having agents or spokespeople speak on their behalf, but in this case, I think the Woods team made a smart decision by having Steinberg diffuse the issue with his statement.

Tags: message, sound bite, spin, tiger woods

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Media Training, Speaking, Speaking to Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.