Poor Choice Leaves Magazine in their own noose

Golfweek magazine, one of the sports's only two national weekly magazines, is potentially courting considerable controversy. An image of a hangman's noose will be on the cover of its next edition, reports Steve Elling of CBSSports.com.

As civil rights activists protest over Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman's comment back on Jan. 4 about Tiger Woods, the magazine is running a series of follow-up stories focusing on the issue, which includes feedback from former network broadcaster Ben Wright, who was canned by CBS several years ago for making sexist comments.

But is emphasizing the noose, especially with its racist connotations and galling symbolism, a form of intentional journalistic pandering?

“There was a great deal of debate over it,” Golfweek editor Dave Seanor said of the magazine's in-house deliberations. “But it was the news of the week, no question about it. That's what everybody in the game is talking about.”

Tilghman, in a freewheeling and unscripted exchange regarding Woods' dominance with analyst Nick Faldo, suggested un-humorously that players could “lynch him (Woods) in a back alley.” She was quickly suspended for two weeks.

“Clearly, what Kelly said was inappropriate and unfortunate and she obviously regrets her choice of words,” PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement yesterday. “But 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.”