Monday, July 6, 2020

Repeat after me ...


Maybe it's the words. Maybe they're too big.

Or maybe we're not speaking slowly enough. Or loudly enough.  Or ... something.

You might have missed it while watching "Hamilton" or ducking all the shrapnel in your neighborhood, but over the holiday weekend another professional athlete had another run-in with a media type. This time it was a golfer, Bryson DeChambeau, who's gotten some ink this summer for Big Mac-ing his way to a better golf game. More heft, skinnier numbers on the leaderboard, that's been the secret to his sudden emergence.

It worked to a fare-thee-well over the weekend, when DeChambeau won one of those bank/mortgage company/potted meat product tournaments in Detroit. But that's not why we're here today.

We're here today because of something that happened in the third round Saturday, when DeChambeau became the latest public figure not to get it.

It seems he took issue with a cameraman who caught him in a fit of temper after butchering a bunker shot on the seventh hole. DeChambeau smacked the sand with his club -- a relatively mild fit of pique, frankly -- then chased down the cameraman and had a brief, intense discussion with him about, well, journalism.

"He was literally watching me the whole entire way after getting out of the bunker, walking up to the next green," DeChambeau crabbed later. "I mean, I understand it's his job to video me, but at some point, I think we need to need to start protecting our players out here compared to showing a potential vulnerability and hurting someone's image."

Which brings us back to using too many big words or not enunciating properly.

See, we've repeated ourselves and repeated ourselves and repeated ourselves on the role of the media, and still some people (DeChambeau) don't get it. And so, repeating ourselves again a little louder for those of you in the back, allow us to reiterate:

1. Yes, Bryson, it is the cameraman's job to video you. End of story.

2. No, Bryson, it's not his job, or the job of anyone else in media, to "protect" your image.  Not unless you sign their paychecks, which you don't.

3. So if you don't want some cameraman filming you using your club as a garden hoe after a poor shot, then don't do it. You, and only you, are the guardian of your image. That's no one else's job but yours.

Got that?
Please?

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