Making sense of the Tiger Woods controversy

Here’s a factual statement: Tiger Woods got in a car accident in the early hours of Friday morning, steering his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant, then driving it into a tree. He wasn’t seriously injured, and — true to terse Tiger form — is studiously avoiding saying anything about the accident besides that it was his fault. Gripping stuff, right? And yet, because it was Tiger Woods making that awkward and implausible 120-degree turn out of his driveway — and because a supermarket tabloid reported a possibly related but unsubstanitated rumor about Woods last week — it’s news.