The saga of golfer Tiger Woods, his car wreck and his admitted "transgressions" have mainstream media organizations like ours debating what to report, where to play the stories and determining how much of his personal life is too much.

A 76-year-old Kähala resident had me going when he berated me last week over providing too little coverage of Woods. Then I realized he wasn't kidding.

"You are missing the biggest story of the year," he said. "Afghanistan is boring. What's happening with Tiger Woods is exciting. It's all over TV all day and you're ignoring it. I want to be titillated."

We haven't exactly ignored this story. Woods' accident and aftermath appeared in our sports section from Nov. 28, the day after he slammed his SUV into a tree and fire hydrant, until Dec. 4. Over those seven days, we used our wire services to report that Woods was refusing to speak with law enforcement officials, took full blame for his "embarrassing" accident, withdrew from his own golf tournament, was fined $164 for careless driving (ending a police investigation) and apologized for "personal failings" involving his family.

I tried to explain to our Kähala reader that while some TV news channels are reporting Woods' alleged extramarital affairs, they are getting the information from some unseemly sources, many of whom pay for information.

Is the private life of Tiger Woods news? Everyone seems to be talking about it, and if a story like this has such high interest, readers will find news about Woods wherever they can and probably bypass more conventional sources, like The Associated Press, the Washington Post or USA Today, where we get much of our wire news.

On Tuesday, the story took another twist when his mother-in-law was taken to a hospital with stomach pains. The AP used this story to talk about the accident, his marital woes and updated reports from the National Enquirer and Us Weekly alleging two affairs. It also stated that a Florida trooper suspected Woods was driving under the influence before the crash, but his request for blood tests was rejected by prosecutors.

In sports last week, we ran a column assessing his future in golf. A business story looked at how prime-time ads featuring Woods have disappeared. On Friday, Woods said he was taking an "indefinite" leave from golf to work on his marriage and mentioned his "infidelity" for the first time.

We'll continue to carefully monitor what we report about Tiger Woods' private life, fully aware that interest is extremely high.

But I was heartened to read the latest News Coverage Index by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The top story from Nov. 30 to Dec. 6, as measured by newspaper and television coverage, was President Obama's troop surge for Afghanistan, followed by news about the economy. No. 3 was the Woods story, which accounted for 6 percent of newspaper space and 18 percent of TV airtime.

Seems readers (and viewers) still have their news priorities in order.

Mark Platte is senior vice president and editor of The Advertiser. Reach him at 525-8080 or at mplatte@honoluluadvertiser.com. Follow his Twitter updates at www.twitter.com/markplatte.