The media frenzy around the Tiger Woods scandal isn't always about the facts

Just what do we know for sure about the games Tiger Woods played? Despite the tidal wave of reporting since his infamous (and still mysterious) post-Thanksgiving car wreck, the answer might be a lot less than we think.

There's little doubt that Woods cheated on his wife, and isn't the upstanding family man the world once thought he was. In the wake of damning text and voice-mail messages that he allegedly sent to paramours, Woods acknowledged unspecified "transgressions" and "personal sins" on his Web site last week.

But two weeks after stories about the world's greatest golfer began detonating, much about this story has taken on the coloration of fact without the facts themselves. For example:

-- Did Woods's wife, Elin, beat him when she learned of his infidelities, precipitating Woods's car crash in the early-morning hours after Thanksgiving?

That is the accepted narrative, widely reported by the tabloid and mainstream media alike and seemingly certified as fact by a "Saturday Night Live" skit last weekend. But the only people who really know what happened -- the couple -- aren't talking. There's no police report attesting to battery, no eyewitness account, no statement from the doctors and nurses who treated Woods saying that his injuries were inflicted by his wife.

-- Exactly how many women has Woods had affairs with during his marriage?

Again, claims of multiple extramarital relationships have been widely reported, although the number varies depending on who's doing the reporting. But it's hard to be certain about the extent of Woods's alleged cheating. Stories about marital infidelity are always difficult to confirm; one or both parties have an incentive to evade or lie. Unless the cheater fesses up (as John Edwards, Mark Sanford and David Letterman eventually did) or is caught in the act (Gary Hart, more or less) or is presented with incontrovertible evidence (Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer), such claims remain in the realm of gossip.

Woods hasn't identified any of his reported lovers, and several of the women claiming relationships with him, including two porn actresses, have offered little to substantiate their stories -- no text messages, no voice mails, no blue dresses from the Gap. What's more, at least two of the women have denied having sex with him. Yet their names continue to appear among his mistresses.

-- Was alleged mistress No. 1, Rachel Uchitel, paid by Woods to deny an affair with him?

That's what several media accounts initially said. But again, the sourcing is vague, and neither Uchitel, nor her attorney Gloria Allred has confirmed any such scenarios. Woods has not commented, either. TMZ.com, the celebrity gossip Web site, later changed its initial account and said no money changed hands.

-- Did Woods and his wife revise their prenuptial agreement in the wake of his extramarital revelations?

Most certainly, reported the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Daily News, the Boston Globe, Us Weekly, the Daily Beast Web site and international newspapers. But you'll have to take their word for it. Or not, because many of the stories give contradictory time frames and alleged dollar amounts for Elin Nordegren's silence. Has Tiger offered to pay his wife $5 million to weather the scandal (the Daily News), $20 million (the Globe) or up to $80 million (the Daily Beast)?