Golfweek Editor Fired for Noose Cover

Source: Associated Press

Golfweek Editor Fired for Noose Cover
2008-01-18 17:29:13
By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer

Ten days after a Golf Channel anchor was suspended for her use of "lynch" in commentary on Tiger Woods, an editor was fired Friday for illustrating the controversy with a noose on the cover of Golfweek magazine. Dave Seanor, vice president and editor who took responsibility for the noose cover of the Jan. 19 issue, was replaced by Jeff Babineau.

"We apologize for creating this graphic cover that received extreme negative reaction from consumers, subscribers and advertisers across the country," Turnstile Publishing Co. president William J. Kupper Jr. said. "We were trying to convey the controversial issue with a strong and provocative graphic image. It is now obvious that the overall reaction to our cover deeply offended many people. For that, we are deeply apologetic."

Golfweek removed its Jan. 19 issue from its booth at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla., while Babineau made the rounds on news talk shows to offer more apologies. The magazine also removed the cover from its Web site.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem called the Golfweek cover "outrageous and irresponsible" and accused the magazine of tabloid journalism. He distanced himself from the firing of Seanor with a statement from the PGA Tour that Finchem merely was responding to an inquiry, and that his comments were not a "call to action."

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Of course, putting something like that on the cover of a golf magazine may cause heart palpitations among the elderly population who tend to enjoy the game, but the noose's connection to racial violence makes it an appropriate image for the story just as a swastika is an appropriate illustration for a piece on Neo-Nazis.

Being able to join in a self-righteous mob is so much more satisfying.

The use of a noose in that context is a deliberate attempt at intimidation and a reminder of the white power structure. It's not an overreaction at all to call them on this and fire people.

There is a black man running for president. That is sure to bring all the racists out of the woodwork.

If he becomes the Democrat's candidate, therefore a very serious contender for the WH, some racist nut case may try to pull off a Bobby Kennedy on him. I just pray that Obama plays it smart with his security so he won't end up like Bhutto.

cover was a swell move!

MKJ

the whole thing.

Then, maybe people will stop making these horrible remarks about it.

Consider this. If the story were about a woman athlete and a male sports reporter said "They'll have to take her into a back alley and gang rape her" what would have happened to him?

I'm in the middle of reading I've Got the Light of Freedom about the Mississippi freedom movement and it includes a horrifying chapter on lynching in MS during the late 19th-early 20th century. Whites don't know this history. We need to be beaten over the head with it until we understand.

I also like how it illustrates the incredibly important and often overlooked roles of women in the Civil Rights movement - check out Ella Baker, Septima Clark and Fannie Lou Hamer. :)

There is a pretty graphic book about lynching in America, called Forced Vengence, with pretty disturbing pictures of Americans enjoying the spectacle of hanging African Americans, some of these lynchings happened in the North as well as the South.

If you are interested, join the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Misogyny is alive and well and living in America. If any reporter did ever say anything so disgusting, he'd laugh and add, 'So I'm not politically correct' and all the jerks would laugh right along with him. Eventually we'd get the sort of lame-ass apology Chris Matthews just gave which is in essence, "I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry -- sort of -- and I probably won't do it again but if I do, so what? Now where's my million dollars?" Terribly satisfying, that. Imus didn't get fired for calling a bunch of inoffensive young women 'hos', he got fired because he was racist. If he'd just settled for calling them prostitutes, he'd still be...well, I was going to say on the air, but he is still on the air, just in a smaller market.

swept under the rug where it belongs, eh?

the irony in all this. I wrote to the Golf Channel (even though I am not a viewer) and told them they should fire her ass on the spot!!

are, IMO, part of the reason why the press has abrogated its position as watchdog. Who wants to take a chance, go out on a limb or be edgy? do any of those things, piss a person or group off and BANG! you're fired. a whole lot of incentive there wouldn't you say?

it was a stupid comment and was over (as posted above) and this is just a dumb idea from the editor of a mag that no one reads.