Golfweek Fires Editor

[Ace]

I agree that people say stupid things that they don't really mean or hear and don't really understand all the time.

I grew up in an area with lots of Jews and Catholics and blacks moving in. You heard some Jew jokes but I never understood it.

People are people.

 

[Ace]

The cover was way over the top. If they had done something with a shadow of a noose, it might have worked. Or a noose with a microphone swinging in it.

I think it's "journalistic" of Golfweek to write about a controversial issue. But they managed to throw gasoline on it.

 

[Gold]

I think the thing with Stevenson sounded about right. He apologized quickly and accepted responsibility. Also, you said he had a long career and was esteemed.

I question whether Tilghman has earned that sort of benefit of a doubt. Also, the image of lynching is a lot worse than the other example.

I once heard a story where one Jewish person, upon seeing someone who shared the faith buying a Mercedes, remark something like are you sure your uncle isn't part of the upholstery. Now, that is dark humor and teasing being exchanged among friends. If something like that were broadcast, it is an entirely different matter.

Thanks for the reply, Elliotte - I wanted to get your input.

 

[Gold]

The editor could have put Tiger and the reporter on the front cover and told what was inside more effectively and less offensively.

 

[hondo]

Golfweek hits my desk every week. I read it 10 times a year. I will read this one.
It's an irrelevant publication, journalistically.

The fact you admit you only read it 10 times a year shows you have no idea what you're talking about when you call it irrelevant. Golfweek has done some of the best business stories on golf of any publication. Jeff Babineau and Jeff Rude are topnotch writers. They're the voice of amateur and college golf. You're barking up the wrong tree on that statement.

 

[hondo]

Why can't Golfweek tell Tim Finchem to **** off?
Baseball America can rip Selig any time it wants to do so.
And Elliotte, the issue was "dying down" because the PGA, and its sycopnats, and Kelly Tilghman's pals had run the "It's nobig deal" meme largely untouched for a couple of weeks. This cover illustrated, exactly, what was wrong with Ms. Tighman's display of towering public ignorance and I think firing the editor for it is unconscionable cowardice.

Firing Seanor might have been wrong. But Golfweek tells Finchem, the Tour and other golf honchos where to get off when they need to. You must not read it enough to know.

 

[hondo]

The firing was at least in part an olive branch to advertisers, no doubt. The PGA Tour had threatened to pull its ads and if a few equipment giants followed, Golfweek would eventually fold and dozens would lose jobs. Instead, one guy did.

EDIT: I too want to hear golf scribes' take, but I'd bet Finchem does have that big of a hammer here. The advertising threat was probably just one thing he could do to a publication that wouldn't survive without his league's money and partnership. He wouldn't be able to do a thing to the likes of an SI or ESPN mag but he could make life very hard for Golfweek.

Check a copy of Golfweek. There is very little advertising that could be traced to the Tour. Maybe your odd TPC resort course here and there. but it's not enough to make a difference in this case.

 

[playthrough]

The firing was at least in part an olive branch to advertisers, no doubt. The PGA Tour had threatened to pull its ads and if a few equipment giants followed, Golfweek would eventually fold and dozens would lose jobs. Instead, one guy did.

EDIT: I too want to hear golf scribes' take, but I'd bet Finchem does have that big of a hammer here. The advertising threat was probably just one thing he could do to a publication that wouldn't survive without his league's money and partnership. He wouldn't be able to do a thing to the likes of an SI or ESPN mag but he could make life very hard for Golfweek.

Check a copy of Golfweek. There is very little advertising that could be traced to the Tour. Maybe your odd TPC resort course here and there. but it's not enough to make a difference in this case.

Fair enough. I actually was a subscriber until a few years ago, they couldn't get the thing delivered to me on time when I moved to a rural area.

But don't you think that if the PGA Tour pulled advertising, even if just a little, a lot of others would fall in step behind them?

 

[indiansnetwork]

Well deserved firing in my humble opinion. Well beyond what is acceptable.

 

[eyeonsportsmedia]

The firing was at least in part an olive branch to advertisers, no doubt. The PGA Tour had threatened to pull its ads and if a few equipment giants followed, Golfweek would eventually fold and dozens would lose jobs. Instead, one guy did.

EDIT: I too want to hear golf scribes' take, but I'd bet Finchem does have that big of a hammer here. The advertising threat was probably just one thing he could do to a publication that wouldn't survive without his league's money and partnership. He wouldn't be able to do a thing to the likes of an SI or ESPN mag but he could make life very hard for Golfweek.

Check a copy of Golfweek. There is very little advertising that could be traced to the Tour. Maybe your odd TPC resort course here and there. but it's not enough to make a difference in this case.

Fair enough. I actually was a subscriber until a few years ago, they couldn't get the thing delivered to me on time when I moved to a rural area.

But don't you think that if the PGA Tour pulled advertising, even if just a little, a lot of others would fall in step behind them?

Perhaqps it is more about continued access to information from the Tour and access to the players?

 

[Clerk Typist]

I have no idea if rumored threats that the Tour would pull advertising from affiliated operations (such as World Golf Village) is true. The Tour denied it.
But I do know that golf groups, pro and amateur, are incredibly thin-skinned, fancy blazered (generally) white men who act like parents of high school kids when some dares criticize their quaint little sport in any way, shape or form.
Note that Finchem's minions issued a release in his name, perhaps even authored by him, criticizing Seanor's cover rather than saying nothing. That indicates that Finchem was getting flak from his people.
As for the cover, I agree with the George Lois 1960s Esquire analogy. I might have tried a microphone hanging from a rope with a noose as the shadow, but, if I was the owner, I would never have fired Seanor for what he did.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

If I ever read a golf magazine I'd like my own noose.

 

[Ira_Schoffel]

Yahoo's golf guy has an interview with Seanor. Says he didn't run it by his boss before going to press.

http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news?slug=ma-golfweekQA011808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

 

[pseudo]

Yahoo's golf guy has an interview with Seanor. Says he didn't run it by his boss before going to press.

http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news?slug=ma-golfweekQA011808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Thoughts on this quote?

Y!: How do you respond to people who say, 'What was he thinking?'

Seanor: It's an easy question for someone to ask who has never sat in an editor's chair or worked in journalism. We were thinking, as unbelievable as that might seem to people. Perhaps we overthought it in a way. We weren't trying to be sensational. It's interesting that a lot of the objection, 'Oh, they're just trying to sell magazines.' We're 99 percent subscriptions. We're not even on the newsstand.

Based on the strong reactions from some of you who DO sit in that chair, I'm not sure this is the right time for him to play that card.

 

[MacDaddy]

"Our wish is that one regretful error does not erase more than 30 years of service we've dedicated to this industry."

Errors are accidental. This cover was intentional.

And as I said on the other thread, when I told my wife that he had been "replaced", she asked "What about the other 5-6 people who were in the room and did not have the balls to stand up and do the right thing?"

it was an error of judgement. they admitted it.
i don't get this truculent distinction between accidental and intentional. they apologized - why do you have to be so morally superior?

as for one guy taking the fall, he probably had the final say.

Are you arguing that intent is irrelevant?

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

http://cbs.sportsline.com/columns/story/10585189

Man, Ray Ratto is out to lunch.

Writes a column on Zoeller and neglects to run the money quote