Editor sacked over Woods 'lynch' row coverage

Lawrence Donegan
Saturday January 19, 2008
The Guardian


The ongoing row over an American television presenter's joking reference to "lynching" Tiger Woods took a bizarre twist yesterday with the sacking of an editor who highlighted his magazine's coverage of the story by putting a noose on the front cover.
A week after Kelly Tilghman was suspended from her job as a host of PGA tour coverage on the Golf Channel after joking with her co-host Nick Faldo that Woods' young rivals might want to take him "down a back alley and lynch him", David Seanor, the editor of Golfweek magazine, was fired after the magazine's cover attracted criticism as well as threats from advertisers to withdraw their business.

The PGA tour commissioner Tim Finchem took the unusual step of issuing a statement condemning the cover, which carried the headline "Caught in a Noose?". "We consider Golfweek's imagery of a swinging noose on its cover to be outrageous and irresponsible. It smacks of tabloid journalism. It was a naked attempt to inflame and keep alive an incident that was heading to an appropriate conclusion," said the normally reticent Finchem.
The decision to fire Seanor was announced by the magazine's chairman, William Kupper Jr, who said the cover received extreme negative reaction. "We apologise for creating this graphic cover. We were trying to convey the controversial issues 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." It is not known whether Kupper had seen the offending cover before it went to print.

Seanor was not available for comment last night, although earlier this week he admitted he had been surprised at the extent of the reaction the cover had attracted and hinted he had regrets. "There's been a huge, negative reaction. I've had so many emails. It's a little overwhelming. I wish we could have come up with something that made the same statement but didn't create as much negative reaction," he said, adding that part of the problem was that the golf industry recoiled when the issue of race was raised.

"Look at the executive suites at the PGA tour, or the USGA, or the PGA of America. There are very, very few people of colour there. This is a situation in golf where there needs to be more dialogue. And when you get more dialogue, people don't want to hear it, and they brush it under the rug. But as this has unfolded, I'm glad there's dialogue."

· Martin Kaymer, last season's European tour rookie of the year, yesterday took a six-shot lead after two rounds of the Abu Dhabi championship. The 23-year-old German added a seven-under-par 65 to his opening-day 66 to finish on 13 under at the halfway point of the $2m (£1m) event. Henrik Stenson was six shots back and the Open Champion, Padraig Harrington, was out of contention on level par for the tournament.


They never learn - eb