Ari Fleischer quits Tiger Woods team, stands by McGwire claim of steroids health benefit

Neil Best: "Golf Channel's Kelly Tilghman reported before her chat with her old pal Tiger that former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer has left Woods' media advice squad because he was becoming too much of a focus of stories about Woods' strategy.

• Politics aside, Mr. Fleischer's rapid rise as a sports media strategist makes me again question why people and companies continue to pay big money to p.r. "experts."

Here is what Fleischer said in last week's Sports Illustrated when asked whether he regretted another client, Mark McGwire, insisting in his first interview that he used steroids only to stay healthy, not to improve his performance:

• "Even if he said, 'I took steroids to aid performance,' he'd have had the same amount of criticism. The bottom line was he came clean."

That, sir, is delusional." from Neil Best Watchdog, 3/22/10, "Ari Fleischer quits Tiger Woods' Advice Squad" (subscription)

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