Golf Channel anchor suspended for 'racially sensitive' comments about Tiger Woods

[Rogue Nine]

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3189374&campaign=rss&source=GOLFHeadlines

 

Kelly Tilghman, the Golf Channel anchor who during Friday's broadcast from the Mercedes-Benz Championship said while discussing Tiger Woods' dominance that young players on the PGA Tour should "lynch him in a back alley," was suspended two weeks Wednesday for the remark.

 

The move came after a wave of outrage that included a call for her to be fired by civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton and despite a statement from the Woods camp saying, "It is a complete non-issue."

 

Sharpton said the fact Woods did not call for punishment of Tilghman does not mean the comment was not offensive to African-Americans.

 

"That's the same thing Don Imus said," Sharpton said on CNN Headline News Wednesday, referring to the radio shock-jock's racially offensive comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. "[He said] 'I want to talk to the Rutgers girls' and not talk about the insult he said on all blacks."

 

Sharpton said the issue of hanging strikes a raw nerve among African-Americans.

 

"If I got on this show and said I wanted to put some Jewish-American in a gas chamber, I don't care what context I said it in, the entire Jewish community would have the right to say I should be put off this show or my radio show if I said it there," Sharpton told CNN. "Or if I said I wanted to see a woman raped. This is an insult to all blacks. Lynching is not murder in general; it is not assault in general. It is a specific racial term."

 

The Golf Channel, which originally said there would be no punishment, changed its position less than three hours after Sharpton's remarks with a statement issued Wednesday night:

 

"The Golf Channel regrets the poorly chosen remarks made by Kelly Tilghman on a recent broadcast and, again, extends our apologies to anyone who was offended. There is simply no place on our network for offensive language like this. While we believe that Kelly's choice of words was inadvertent and that she did not intend them in an offensive manner, the words were hurtful and grossly inappropriate. Consequently, we have decided to suspend Kelly for two weeks, effective immediately."

 

According to Alabama's Tuskegee University, 3,466 African-Americans were lynched in the United States from 1882-1968. In 2005, The U.S. Senate officially apologized for failing to act on more than 200 anti-lynching bills introduced over the years.

 

The use of a hangman's noose as a racist symbol has resurfaced recently, most notably in the 2006 case of the Jena Six when six black high school students in Louisiana were charged with beating a white student after nooses had been left in a tree under which the black students had asked school permission to sit.

 

A story on its Web site posted before the suspension was announced said the Golf Channel "regrets the unfortunate choice of words that Kelly Tilghman used during a recent broadcast and we wish to apologize to anyone who was offended by her remarks. We take this matter very seriously. Kelly has apologized privately to Tiger and publicly on the air."

 

In her statement, Tilghman said, "On Friday during our golf broadcast, Nick Faldo and I were discussing Tiger's dominance in the golf world and I used some poorly chosen words. I have known Tiger for 12 years and I have apologized directly to him. I also apologize to our viewers who may have been offended by my comments."

 

Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg of IMG, released a statement saying, "This story is a non-issue. Tiger and Kelly are friends and Tiger has a great deal of respect for Kelly. Regardless of the choice of words used, we know unequivocally that there was no ill intent in her comments. This story is a non-issue in our eyes."

 

According to The Associated Press, Woods and Tilghman have known each other 12 years. She was picked to host a club demonstration with Woods in south Florida when he talked about new products from Nike Golf.

 

The comments by Tilghman flew under the radar all weekend, even after she apologized on-air during Sunday's broadcast. Newsday, a suburban New York newspaper, reported Tilghman's apology on Monday.

 

"I'm sure Kelly wishes she never said that," Jim Furyk said, according to The Associated Press. "I haven't spoken with Tiger, but I've been told that they've had their talk and they've discussed it. Anything I say is kind of just like pouring salt in the wound at this point. Obviously, she would love to not have said that and for it not to be news. I'm glad that her and Tiger spoke."

 

Fred Funk only heard about the comment Wednesday morning at the Sony Open.

 

"There was no ill intent at all," Funk said, according to The Associated Press. "I think it was just a slip, and they said that Tiger has already forgiven her. I think when you're in the TV tower for that many hours, you're going to wish you didn't say some things probably, and that was one thing that slipped out. I think you've got to give them a little grace."

 

Tilghman, one of the most-popular on-air personalities at Golf Channel, (last year was the first of a 15-year deal by the Golf Channel to broadcast PGA Tour events) became the first female to anchor a professional golf broadcast, and one of the few to hold such a prominent position in all of sports.

 

The former player for the Duke University golf team competed professionally from 1992-96 before joining the Golf Channel. She will return to the air Jan. 25 at the Buick Invitational, which will be Woods' first tournament of the 2008 season.

 

I don't usually post stuff in Kavar's but this just struck me as extremely silly. People are making mountains out of molehills. I expect this out of someone like Al Sharpton, but it's clear to me that the Golf Channel overreacted.

 

What do you think? Are we getting too PC? Are we getting too sensitive?

[El Sitherino]

Hi, I'm Al Sharpton.

[Jae Onasi]

Sithy, that is _so_ bad.

 

If the channel has policies prohibiting use of racially charged language (and I would be surprised if they didn't), then he violated those polices and has to abide by the consequences.

[TK-8252]

What a dumbass thing to say. Apparently it was meant as a joke, but how the hell is that funny?

[Web Rider]

What a dumbass thing to say. Apparently it was meant as a joke, but how the hell is that funny?

 

yeah, I agree, but I am equally annoyed with Sharpton once more on making "lynching" a black-only term. Lots of people of lots of races were "lynched", aka, hung, over the last few thousand years. It's like how Jews make the holocaust out to be ONLY about them, and ignore the other 5 million people, like the Romanies, homosexuals, handicapped/retarded, and generally not liked by the Nazis.

[MJ-W4]

Personally, I think 'lynch him in a back alley' was an inappropriate remark, whoever it was aimed at. I would have given that anchor a two-week breather and put her on short notice because any such statement is totally out of order. I'd have also told the public she was punished for a general offence to prevent any campaigners from jumping on the bandwaggon.

[Rogue Nine]

Clearly we are too sensitive. :/

[MJ-W4]

Clearly we are too sensitive. :/

Definitely. Therefore: Booo to you, for pointing this out.

[mimartin]

Wasn’t an intelligent thing to say, but was by no means worthy of getting fired for. Woods does not have a problem with it, then neither do I.

 

All it was a poor attempt at humor and nothing more. Clearly she needs to study somewhere other than the Michael Richards/Rosie O’Donnell school of comedy.

[El Sitherino]

Well black people are all like...

 

And then white people are all like..

 

 

It's a comment about how other golfers would probably want to lynch Tiger Woods.

I don't think it's **** from her, maybe a warning. "TIGER, THEY'RE GOING TO LYNCH YOU!" It could be why she got suspended, I don't buy this "Black America is offended" thing.

[Kain Darro]

I thought the the comment was funny on two levels.

 

1. It's a funny comment, as I and my friends are allways threatening each other with absurd things like that.

2. The outrage it would create amongst certain groups would be funny to watch.

 

Really, our society is very conservative. We are the global party-poopers. The comment, if made about a white golfer, would have been laughed at by everyone and forgotten. Because it was made referencing an african-american, it has created outrage.

 

The thing is, that comment was probably the most un-racist comment ever, as the commentator probably did not even think of the ethnic background of Mr. Woods when it was made. The commentator just sees her friend as just that, her friend. She was not overly sensitive about his ethnic background, just treats him like every other friend she has.

[Totenkopf]

Clearly we are too sensitive. :/

 

 

Too true, too true. If Tiger's not offended, why should anyone else care? And would someone get the hook and pull Sharpton off his stage. Maybe he can go back to talking about how the Egyptians were more advanced than those "greek homo's", where most people aren't listening to him.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Really, our society is very conservative. We are the global party-poopers. The comment, if made about a white golfer, would have been laughed at by everyone and forgotten. Because it was made referencing an african-american, it has created outrage.

That wouldn't really be the case. It isn't just (solely) about murder we're talking about here, but let's suppose it is. If the murder thing was aimed at a black person and the community as a whole got angry with that, then you could allege this: After centuries of slavery, this is how the white community redeem for their past mistakes. Thing is, that the comment was a reference to a series of procedures that the blacks - and exclusively them - suffered years ago.

[El Sitherino]

*and exclusively them *

WRONG!

[Web Rider]

Thing is, that the comment was a reference to a series of procedures that the blacks - and exclusively them - suffered years ago.

 

No, it isn't. Lynching was a term for hanging, and many people of many races were hung over the years. While later "lynch mobs" formed that went around wanting to hang blacks, this is only a matter of circumstance, the mobs could have chosen any act.

[JediAthos]

I've thought for years that our country is entirely too politically correct. There are times where it drives me insane and while the anchor probably should have thought a little more before speaking I don't think a firing is in order.

 

I also think that somebody should give Al Sharpton a job so he'll stop sticking his nose into every little news item he feels like shouting about.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

No, it isn't. Lynching was a term for hanging, and many people of many races were hung over the years. While later "lynch mobs" formed that went around wanting to hang blacks, this is only a matter of circumstance, the mobs could have chosen any act.

The allusion is what matters, as everyone understood as such.

[JediAthos]

As a Navy chief I once worked for explained to me..perception is what drives the way people react to what you do or say. If someone perceives something you said in a certain way then that is how they'll react to it regardless of how you meant it.

[Darth InSidious]

...You think this is bad? Just wait.

[Web Rider]

The allusion is what matters, as everyone understood as such.

 

I am well aware of what mattered. The anchor in question made a reference to the lynching of blacks that occurred in and before the Civil Rights movement. A stupid move yes. However, lynching was not limited to blacks, and even the "lynch mobs" would go after whites or other non-blacks who sympathized with the movement.

 

The POINT however, is that you claimed that lynching ONLY happened to blacks, which is untrue.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

The POINT however, is that you claimed that lynching ONLY happened to blacks, which is untrue.

Of course it's false. That was my fault when I built that statement. Still, I think you can still see what I was referring to.

[El Sitherino]

And how exactly was what she said in correlation with lynch mobs going after blacks?

[Ctrl Alt Del]

And how exactly was what she said in correlation with lynch mobs going after blacks?

Perhaps the "dark alley" part? But it has sure drawn attention to it, specially when she apologized and admitted her mistake on her poor choice of words.

[adamqd]

Theres been Slavery, Lynching and Persecution for thousands of years, but you mention it now and it's obviously gonna strike a nerve with people of African decent, this has happened in living memory for some people.

[El Sitherino]

Perhaps the "dark alley" part? But it has sure drawn attention to it, specially when she apologized and admitted her mistake on her poor choice of words.

Well, generally people try to hide murders. But I guess that's just stupid.