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The seemingly never-ending Tiger Woods news cycle

Obama’s sending more troops to Afghanistan, the CBO has two new and surprising reports out on health care and unemployment, but all we (the media, the water cooler crowd) can talk about is “the most famous athlete in the world,” (Fox news) Tiger Woods, and his “extremely mysterious car crash.” Major news outlets have spent the better part of the last several news cycles demanding that Tiger needs to answer some serious questions—but does he? Nope. Even despite his endorsement interests, Tiger doesn’t legally owe the police or the public any explanation. So why are we so obsessed? And how do expectations of privacy vanish in light of celebrity?

Guest:

James Poniewozik, TIME’s media and Television critic; he also writes their “Tuned In” column and blog

Karen Stenrheimer, professor of Sociology at USC; she is the author most recently of "Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture: Why Media is not the Answer"