On Wednesday, NBC News deliberately twisted a quote from Tiger Woods’s Tuesday press conference to give viewers the impression that President Barack Obama was a much better golfer than Woods actually claimed he was.
In a fawning TODAY Show segment about Woods’ remarks about last weekend’s golf outing at the exclusive Floridian golf club, NBC News reporter Peter Alexander enthusiastically claimed Obama had “game” because Woods said “he’s a pretty good stick.”
One problem. Woods did not exactly say that.
Woods never said Obama had “game” or a “pretty good stick.” What Woods said was that if, after Obama leaves the presidency, Obama “spends more time playing the game of golf,” the president could get to the point where he could have “game” or “a pretty good stick.”
But even when devoting a segment to something as trivial as Obama’s golf game, NBC News did all it could to twist Woods’s words to embellish Obama’s golf game and put Obama in a favorable light.
The on-screen headline for the segment that viewers saw was: “‘He’s A Pretty Good Stick’; Tiger Woods on Golf Outing With President Obama.”
Yet, this is what Woods said in the very clip NBC ran during the segment:
WOODS: After these four years, if he spends more time playing the game of golf, I’m sure he can actually get to where he’s a pretty good stick.
And here are Alexander’s comments right after Woods’s comments aired in the clip:
ALEXANDER: In golf-speak, that means the President’s got game.
Perhaps in NBC-speak, Woods’s comments could mean Obama had “game.” But those whose primary agenda is not to put Obama in the best light possible would not take Woods’s words to mean Obama had “game” on the golf course now.
Here is the clip of the segment from Newsbusters:
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