Negative stories filled with hatred and name-calling have become the “new normal” for media coverage. No longer do audiences feel encouraged or motivated from what we read or hear. But the media’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech is an opportunity to influence and inspire, as well.
Recently, New York Times Opinion Columnist, Thomas L. Friedman wrote about Tiger Woods and The Game of Life.
“Golf is all about how you react when you get a bad bounce.
“The biggest takeaway for me,” Mr. Friedman wrote, ” is the reminder of the truism that golf is the sport most like life. Because it is played on an uneven surface and everything is on you. So good and bad bounces — and self-inflicted mistakes — are built into the game. And so much of success in golf, as in life, is about how you react to those good and bad bounces. Do you quit? Do you throw your club? Do you cheat? Do you whine? Do you blame your caddie?
Watch this!
“Or do you say what the greatest golfers say when a bounce turns against them or their ball ends in a divot in the middle of the fairway and only a great shot will get them back into the hole? They all say to their caddie the same two words: “Watch this.” And then they pull off a remarkable shot that winds through the trees, over the hill and past the sand trap, avoids the pond on the left and lands right in the middle of the putting green — which is exactly the shot Tiger hit on the 11th hole out of the trees at Augusta National on Sunday.
“To do that under pressure is stunning, but it is not just luck or even pure physical attributes. It is about practice — hours and hours and hours. Golf legend, Gary Player liked to say, ‘The more I practice, the luckier I get.'”
“And that leads to another way that golf is so much like life,” Mr. Friedman continued. “Each and every round is a journey, and, like all of life’s journeys, it’s never a straight line. It’s always full of crazy bounces, self-inflicted mistakes and unexpected detours, and therefore always a journey of discovery about yourself and your playing partners. And, if you love the game, it’s an everlasting journey in search of self-improvement.”
The media, like the executives in media coaching, have both the right, the responsibility and the freedom of speech to be proactive, not simply reactive.
Comparing golf to the journey of life lets audiences catch a break from all the negativity and be inspired and motivated by the media using its guaranteed right of freedom of speech.