The 2008 golf season has started in an unusual manner in which two media outlets, Golf Channel and Golfweek magazine, have attracted national coverage over a dark subject that has taken the spotlight away from the first three events on the PGA Tour.
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Unfortunately when Kelly Tilghman uttered the words "lynch him in a back alley" as an attempt at humor in talking about what other players could do about Tiger Woods at the end of the Friday night coverage of the Mercedes-Benz Championship, nobody from the Golf Channel picked up on the possible problem. Even with two producers in the truck, an executive producer on site and a full staff of producers doing the Sprint Post-Game and Golf Central, not one person raised a flag that possibly this could be a problem. The comment was so misjudged by just about everyone at Golf Channel that it aired the comment in repeat shows. In fact, Golf Channel's president Page H. Thompson didn't find out about it till the next day.
Tilghman was suspended for two weeks for the slip-up, but the folks that were producing the show seem to have escaped any repercussions. Golf Channel has been very quiet on any answers as to why they were so irresponsible in the handling of the situation, but we hope in the future that things will be handled better. Normally a problem like this goes away after a couple of days, but when Golfweek magazine put a noose on its cover this week, the controversy was re-ignited and it cost editor Dave Seanor his job.
So how did all of this get out of hand and go from an incident that could have easily been forgotten, but turned into an ugly problem? What are the lessons that will be learned over this and will this force some changes in the way the media covers stories in the future? How much has Internet coverage caused this story to get out of hand and what could be done to help put this story to bed? The main problem was the decision by Golf Channel to pair Tilghman and Nick Faldo. The producers made things worse by allowing them to try and be funny like Faldo and Paul Azinger were at ABC. This was an accident waiting to happen and even though people like myself and others tried to point out that this partnership wasn't working, the Golf Channel let it go on and on. Yes they got a lot of great press over Tilghman being the first woman anchor of a PGA Tour event. But in a way it was like the Titanic's maiden voyage, a lot of excitement and promise that turned to tragedy.
As for Kelly Tilghman, this slip of the tongue will haunt her until her dying day. It's very unfortunate that she will have to pay such a high price for this. As for her future, the suspension will be over on Wednesday and the Golf Channel hasn't said a word on what will happen. Will Tilghman be given the anchor chair again or will she return to other Golf Channel shows like the Sprint-pre/post game shows and Golf Central? Many thought that when Vince Cellini was rehired last week this could spell the possibility of Tilghman leaving, but since this hasn't happened already, the odds are against it ever happening.
As for the future, it will be interesting to see how upper management at the Golf Channel handles its producers. The big blame for this falls on their shoulders as they didn't not realize early enough that it was a problem. If it would have been handled right away on Friday night this may not have gotten out of hand. If the comment had been edited out of the repeat shows this probably wouldn't be getting close to a quarter of a million hits on YouTube. So hopefully producers at not only Golf Channel but any place else will be more careful in making sure that if something like this happens again, they have to handle it better.
For many, the Golfweek cover is more of a problem. For Dave Seanor the person that was responsible for this, he had more than a week to think of what he was going to do and some feel that his noose cover was even worse than what Tilghman did. Yes, it's easy to say now that this was a problem, but last Monday when Seanor gave the final OK to print it he felt that he was being "edgy" and different with his graphic. Again, we have to put ourselves in Seanor's shoes on this one. Golfweek is the No. 3 rated weekly golf publication in a three-magazine race. Seanor has had to be different in reporting news than Golf World and Sports Illustrated's Golf Plus edition. Seanor has been responsible for a lot of good things at Golfweek. The "Forecaddie" is very popular and some of the angles that Golfweek has taken have been very different and very good. When Tilghman slipped up, Golfweek was the first publication to come to her defense. Unfortunately, if those that panned the cover would have looked at the four pages of stories, one page was trying to defuse the problem and let it be forgotten.
For Seanor, he got paid the big bucks to be edgy and different. His job was to get people's attention. It had nothing to do with selling Golfweek on the newsstand since 99% of the magazine's sales are subscription. But let's cut to the chase on this: The cover was hurtful. Unfortunately for Golfweek and Seanor, he may have had a lot of people on his staff to ask for their opinion, but since Golfweek doesn't have any black editors Seanor didn't get the opinion that he really needed on the cover. For both Golf World and Sports Illustrated, they have black editors that they can ask for opinions on this. Jim Herre, the editor of Sports Illustrated Golf Plus, has Farrell Evans as one of his editors. Evans is black and Herre can make sure that any decisions like this are the right one. As for Golf World and Golf Digest, they have Pete McDaniel to help them through issues like this. I know that personally I have made a few phone calls to McDaniel, who is a long-time friend of mine, to make sure that I also understand the ramifications over the way I handle something like this. It has always been an advantage for me to have his point of view.
Now I don't want this to sound as if I am happy over the demise of Seanor, because I am not. I worked for Seanor for three years in the 1990s and know what a talented person he is. I also know that he isn't a racist and that this was a mistake. He has run Golfweek for 13 years now and has done a first-class job. Yes this was a slip-up, but he shouldn't be losing his job over this. As a matter of fact, I am disappointed on how this whole thing has played out.
If this was a problem, why wasn't Seanor dismissed on Wednesday when the magazine was seen by people and those in charge at Golfweek? Things were fine until PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem spoke out about the cover. At the PGA Merchandise Show on Wednesday he said that the cover "smacks of tabloid journalism." He also felt that this helped to carry on an incident that was close to a conclusion. What was sad about his comments was that he never gave the media his thoughts on Tilghman's comments. So in a way Finchem put more fuel on the fire that became an inferno. Later in the afternoon, TaylorMade CEO Mark King was said to be in the process of talking to Golfweek about pulling some advertising because of the cover.
Still I just hope that on Monday when Seanor meets with Golfweek president and CEO Rance Crain they remember all of the good things that Seanor has done and will have a change of heart. Just like what happened with Tilghman, who kept her job, maybe the folks at Turnstile (owners of Golfweek) will do the same for Seanor and place him at another one of their publications. Nobody outside of the golf world knew who Seanor was before this week, but he got his Andy Warhol "15 minutes of fame" in a public flogging that should be enough of a punishment for what he did.
There are still some things left in this story. This week Tiger Woods will make his debut at the Buick Invitational. How will he handle this? Of course he has been great in the past, but you never know how this is perceived. This is a no-win situation for Woods. The only right answer is to keep quiet and say that it is a non-issue with him, case closed.
Lastly, we have to wonder if everyone from the media to the PGA Tour have learned a lesson on this. We are in an Internet age where whatever happens gets sent around the world for everyone to see in a matter of minutes. Mistakes are something that will always happen and the speed of a response is important. Another item that has to be handled better is issues of race, sexual orientation and religion. There are a lot of issues and groups that could be upset and it's important to make sure that all the issues are covered. Everyone now has a voice as anyone can send an e-mail. There are a lot of blogs and Internet-related sites so everyone has a way to express their opinions. There is more choice and more ways to get in trouble as both Golf Channel and Golfweek have found out. We can only hope that this episode has run its ugly course and will be a thing of the past very soon.
For those interested on Kelly Tilghman being in the booth this week at the Buick, check out the couch producer in this week's Golfobserver "Buzz"
