Golfweek Fires Editor Over ‘Noose’ Cover

Golfweek has fired its editor less than a week after publishing a noose on its cover.

Dave Seanor, the editor responsible for the controversial cover, has been replaced with senior writer Jeff Babineau, the magazine confirmed Friday.

The cover was an attempt to illustrate a story on the racially-insensitive remarks made by a Golf Channel announcer about Tiger Woods. The anchor, Kelly Tilghman, suggested on-air that Woods’ rivals "lynch him in a back alley."

"We apologize for creating this graphic cover that received extreme negative reaction from consumers, subscribers and advertisers across the country," William P. Kupper Jr., president of Turnstile Publishing Co., the parent company of Golfweek, said in a statement. "We were trying to convey the controversial issue 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."

Seanor’s firing came a day after the PGA Tour threatened to pull all of its advertising out of the magazine.

"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. "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."

“We know we have a job ahead of us to re-earn the trust and confidence of many loyal readers,” Babineau said in a note posted on the Golfweek Web site. “Our staff is very passionate about the game. Our wish is that one regretful error does not erase more than 30 years of service we’ve dedicated to this industry.”

DISCUSS: Did Golfweek's 'Noose' Editor Deserve To Be Fired?

RELATED LINKS

COMMENTS: 2

Post Comment / Discuss This Story - Info/Rules

Golf Mag Noose Cover

Submitted by Jerry Gabor on Fri, 01/18/2008 - 14:54.

Yes, he should be fired. This mag should have a cross section of ethnicity on the board to make good & news worthy decisions. Lack of compassion towards others when this country has been trying to heal many wounds over the last 30+ years. This intensifies division in race relations in this country.

Golfweek

Submitted by Jeff Miller on Mon, 01/21/2008 - 15:58.

I have been a long time subscriber to Golfweek. I have enjoyed the publication and considered it an accurate and timely news information source about global golf - professional and amateur. The noose image, literally, took my breath away. My immediate thought who gave the cover assignment to the art director? I assume the editor. And, how did this get past the issue review meeting? How can a staff sit in a review meeting and think, "wow, now that is a good image of a noose...nice PhotoShop work". What were they thinking? To answer your question; someone had to fall on the sword for this simply because the PGA would have pulled all advertising. Personally, I hope the publisher, Terry Olson was got his butt chewing - after all, it's HIS brand. Dave Seanor was the editor and, obviously, didn't use his best judgment. For that, he becomes the person who has to fall on the sword. It's not fair - but, I understand. BTW, my immediate reaction was to cancel my subscription to Golfweek...I've seen how quickly they recognized thier error. Therefore, I will give them a much deserved second chance. Sincerely, Jeff Miller Rockford, IL

Your name:

E-mail: *

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Subject:

Comment: *

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

What code is in the image?: *