Blogging, lynchgate and spineless media companies

Before we begin, a brief comment on my extended hiatus from blogdom. It’s been about six months since I last blogged and a few of you even noticed. After trying to write something relevant on a daily basis for several months I got frustrated. The writing was forced, as were my daily efforts to find new and interesting topics. I finally realized that I don’t need to share my opinion on every subject - I can yell at the radio for that and I certainly don’t need to burden readers with more  clutter. As we move forward, if I feel like I have a different perspective on an issue or the explosive urge to unburden myself I’ll do it, otherwise there are ample voices on blogs, talk radio or in print to cover all sides of any given argument. Having said that, I suspect blogging will become a weekly ritual and we’ll see how that goes.

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Kelly Tilghman is back on the air today after her two week suspension.  Frankly I don’t get the idea of suspending a golf announcer. It’s not like she hammered Tiger Woods from behind in the corner or used a flying elbow to knock Nick Faldo into tomorrow (although that’s not a bad idea). What’s the purpose of suspending her other than to let the Golf Channel prove to all the politically correct types out there that they are right on top of this egregious gaffe. Presumably a suspension is supposed to make Tilghman more careful about her choice of words in the future. It’s more likely that it will make her even stiffer than she already is. If the Golf Channel had any balls they would have let the matter rest after issuing an apology instead of caving in to Al Sharpton and the rest of the crazies. Or they should have canned her sorry ass immediately if they felt that strongly about it. Next time she says something inappropriate will they up the suspension to four weeks for being a repeat offender?

As a white Canadian I obviously have a different perspective on lynching than African Americans. Personally I don’t find the word to be the least bit offensive but then my experience with the word comes from growing up watching westerns where lynching involved a vigilante group heading out of town on their horses to catch some bad dude and string him up from the nearest tree. Before that happened the good guys usually caught the real bad guy and the sheepish vigilantes had to turn the dude loose. To me there is nothing racial about the word and I’m pretty sure Tilghman didn’t imagine there was either.

In the media storm around this whole issue, most of you will be aware that Golf Week Magazine ran a cover with a noose on it. I got a copy of the offending issue at the PGA Show before it was pulled in favour of next week’s vanilla offering. Senior Editor Dave Seanor took the fall on this one as the Magazine hustled him off the property for good. I can appreciate the attempt to put out a provocative cover to attract readers. However, the statement issued with Seanor’s firing implied that the Magazine in no way condoned his actions and suggested that he used poor judgement. Are we to believe that Seanor snuck into the printing plant in the dark of night and put a noose on the cover all by himself. In a large publication many, many people are involved in the creative and decision-making process before anything goes to print. With a controversial cover like this I strongly suspect that the parent company, the publisher and probably some legal types all weighed in with a chance to kill the idea. Instead, they threw Seanor under the bus in the ensuing firestorm. Another great example of a media giant that fell under Bob Barker’s knife.