Tiger Woods’ Thanksgiving weekend car crash spawned a cottage industry for the media. The tabloids have reported breathlessly 24/7 about his alleged extra-marital exploits, the participants (both outed and self promoted) and a possible stay at a rehab facility. Cable and national TV news programs have to various extents joined the tabloid fray or just reported on the tabloid reports. The business/financial media have covered Tiger’s myriad sponsors and their varying reactions to his debacle as well as the financial impact on him, his sponsors and the golf industry.

Now comes Tiger’s first public pronouncement on the dalliances that have gripped the nation (ABC News ran the news as their lead story last night in front on the release of Americans held in Haiti, the one-year anniversary of the stimulus and the US gold medal haul in Vancouver). Tiger and his people, who already have a nice record of pr/crisis communications missteps since late November, have dictated that his appearance in front of a group of hand-picked friends, colleagues and close associates will include only a short statement in front of one camera with no reporters or Q&A.

The logistics and choreography of this event should be a primer for celebrities/sports stars as well as corporations/executives on how not to respond to a reputational crisis. Corporations and sports stars who deal with crises successfully have learned that the best way to move forward and begin reputational repairs is to address the situation quickly and factually, to be transparent and to engage the questions of the media and the public. To do otherwise only perpetuates the crisis, allowing others to fill the void with their own answers, competitors to seize on the opportunities that are afforded and reputations to remain denigrated.

The executives at Toyota (who made numerous communications missteps but are slowly figuring things out) and former baseball star and now avowed steroid user Mark McGwire (who after years in the wilderness is making his way back) are just two recent examples of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to crisis communications and reputation. Tiger is arguably the greatest golfer of all-time but is terms of crisis communication and repairing the reputation he worked so hard to build he is nothing more than a weekend duffer.

Richard Tauberman can be reached at rtauberman@mww.com.

rtauberman Crisis Communications Crisis, reputation, Tiger Woods