How should the eventing media cover negative news?
The Tiger Woods fiasco presented an interesting paradox in journalism because the only media outlets not talking or writing about Tiger’s affairs were the golf channel and publications. Similarly, the story drew attention from international horse outlets, such as Horse & Hound, and national US outlets, such as ESPN and SI, the two largest eventing news sites in the US, USEA and COTH refrained from even mentioning the incident. While EN took a different approach, I think ignoring the story was a valid course of action, and our friends at those outlets certainly avoided a lot of criticism that we took here. We chose to publish the incident because many, many people wanted to know what happened– and rather than let rumors run wild, we felt offering the facts of the police report was the right thing to do. It is a sad situation, and we will avoid making judgments of those involved.
