After media reports golf star called Trump a cheater, she drops a bombshell on them
In today’s digital world, it’s become a rat race to report the big story first.
And while that has given the consumer more news than they could possibly want, it seems to increasingly come at the cost of reliability and factual accuracy.
Case in point: LPGA star Suzann Pettersen claims she had quotes taken wildly out of context when she answered some questions about President Donald Trump’s golf game.
“He cheats like hell,” Pettersen was quoted as saying by Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang.
Pettersen apparently elaborated on the claim.
“So I don’t quite know how he is in business. They say that if you cheat at golf, you cheat at business,” she said. “I’m pretty sure he pays his caddie well, since no matter how far into the woods he hits the ball, it’s in the middle of the fairway when we get there.”
Multiple outlets ran with the story because it was yet another golden opportunity for them to needle Trump.
“Trump ‘Cheats Like Hell,'” spread like wildfire across the internet as the media gleefully attacked Trump.
Well, turns out that’s not exactly how it happened.
Pettersen, a 15-time LPGA winner, fired back at the media for misconstruing her statements.
“Over the last few days, the media has quoted me that I said President Trump ‘cheats in golf.’ Not true at all and this has been taken WAY out of context from a long interview I did last week with a Norwegian media outlet,” Pettersen wrote on her Facebook.
She then proceeded to add some much-needed context to her quotes.
“With a big smile on my face, what I said was that he most likely paid his caddy well because every time he found his ball it was in the fairway. The way this has been requoted by many other media outlets is NOT correct and not a fair account of the original interview,” she said.
“I surely hope journalists that requote things like this in the future will read the full story and not just read headlines. Things always seem to come out the wrong way and what’s sad is that this was a very positive interview,” Pettersen lamented. “To me, it seems like the media enjoys twisting things for their readers and viewers. Another lesson learned.”
She concluded her Facebook post with an apology directed at Trump.
“I’m sorry for Mr. Trump who I have known many years, who loves the game, and who I consider a friend,” she said.
While the original story of Pettersen allegedly accusing Trump of being a cheater was fit to get front-page treatment across numerous outlets, Pettersen’s correction of the story has typically been tucked away in the corners of the internet.
It’s certainly disappointing, but hardly surprising.
Perhaps the most ridiculous part of the whole story is that supposedly reputable sports and news sites were running with a story printed by a Norwegian tabloid.
Apparently, the need to attack Trump supersedes any need to fact-check the Norwegian equivalent of “The National Enquirer.”
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