It seems like you can’t pass a newsstand or breeze through a checkout line at the grocery store these days without being bombarded with images of high profile cheating men and their ashamed superstar wives.  Cheating has gone on since the beginning of time, but the media didn’t always splash it across the front pages of the newspaper.  JFK’s sexual conquests were long rumored but never featured as front page news.  Nowadays the media and public’s obsession with scandal is widely evidenced in the pages of Star and Okay magazines, where we expect it, and even in places we don’t, like the historically respectable publication Vanity Fair who recently featured a multipage layout on Tiger Woods’ mistresses.

The question is WHY?  The media outlets will tell you that they are bowing to the demands of the public.  They are in the business of selling magazines after all.  But I contend that one often feeds the other.  So, why are we, the public, and our media outlets obsessed with these stories?

Well, there are a number of reasons.

First off, there’s the rubber necking phenomena.  When we pass an accident on the highway, we often slow down to see the devastation up close, thereby causing a traffic jam.  A similar phenomenon happens when we are confronted with a sex scandal.  In the Tiger Woods case specifically, the incidents of cheating, recounted to the press by Tiger’s almost infinite number of mistresses, were so vile and so demeaning to his seemingly perfect wife, that the devastation is all the more horrific.  Like a highway car pile-up, we simply cannot look away.  And as the details mount, we become increasingly more shocked, “Did you hear who he slept with this week?”  “Did you see those text messages?!…”  The story takes turn after turn after turn as new facts are revealed and more cars are added to the pile.

Secondly, in Tiger’s case a lot of us idolized the man.  He was a modern day hero.  He presented us with a standard by which to model our own lives.  We were personally invested in Tiger.  So much so that many of us and our family members were walking the streets proudly wearing our Tiger endorsed Nike paraphernalia.  He became an extension of our individual and national identity.  Not only did we feel personally betrayed (especially us women), but we also felt embarrassed and at times ashamed to be walking around with his name on our sleeve-evidence that like his wife Elin, we too had been duped.

Thirdly, the media often gives us saints in the hope that one day they can tear them down.  They can’t wait until the golden boy of the moment makes a misstep.  It’s those missteps that sell magazine subscriptions.  So often, the story is sensationalized in a way that enhances the tragedy.  Reporters dig deep to uncover sordid details that will keep the public on the edge of their seats.

And in response we, the public, are angry enough to sling darts at his photo yet voraciously read every bit of information printed on the subject.  Thus, only making the celebrity scandal media machine that much stronger.

In the end, we can guess that Elin will file for divorce from Tiger.  And eventually our anger and anxiety on the subject of his countless affairs will cool.  Mostly because we know and can acknowledge that Tiger is not a golden boy, nor a hero, he is simply an imperfect man, who happens to possess a talent for the game of golf.