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December 05, 2002
Glad To See That Media Bias. . .
In the case of Augusta National is finally drawing some attention from the bigger players in the blogosphere. The flash point for all the renewed interest was a piece that ran in yesterday's New York Daily News, revealing that the New York Times had spiked not one, but two seperate columns that disagreed with the paper's editorial position on Augusta National's membership policy. As it turns out, one of those columns was by Dave Anderson, a sports columnist for the Times who's a past winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Since then, we've seen a leaked copy of an internal memo from another Times editor defending the decisions to spike both columns. That memo is coming under plenty of fire now, with Mickey Kaus and Jack Shafer at Slate leading the way. Thought they're late to the party, I'm glad to see this issue get some more attention. The fact remains that liberal media bias has affected the way this story has been covered from the start -- something that has aided and abetted National Council of Women's Organizations President Martha Burk's public campagin. As I pointed out more than a few months ago, this story isn't really about equal rights for women, if it ever was in the first place. What it is about, however, is how a left wing activist group can hijack the public agenda for its own purposes -- aided and abetted by reporters that don't ask tough questions, and won't give opponents an honest chance to fight it out in the public square. Postscripts: though Raines and the Times might be the issue today, it's important to note that this whole story was started because Christine Brennan, a columnist for USA Today, first wrote about Augusta National's policy back in April (link only available in paid archives). It was that column, not any coverage by the Times that led National Council of Women's Organizations President Martha Burk to jump-start her campaign against Augusta National and club president Hootie Johnson. And as the story has been smoldering through the Summer and Fall, Brennan has been making periodic appearances on Washington area radio stations to keep the issue in the public eye here locally. Here's what Brennan had to say in a September 27th piece in USA Today, where her editors interviewed her and some other USA Today sports columnists on the issue: The fact that it has taken 12 years for golf to move from Shoal Creek to Martha Burk speaks volumes about how the game of golf really feels about women: Namely, that it's of course no longer acceptable to discriminate against African-Americans, but it's still appropriate, and even encouraged in some circles, to discriminate against women. This is wrong. Augusta National tries to hide behind the private-club excuse, but that works for only 51 weeks a year. In the 52nd week, hosting The Masters, the club becomes the very public face of golf and has a responsibility to act in an acceptable public manner, which means it can't discriminate against 51% of the population without having to answer for it. And just how does Augusta National treat women that 52nd week of the year? Just the same as any other fan who wants to attend the Masters and has a coveted pass. Another issue: a number of columnists, including Kaus and the Washington Post's Michael Wilbon, have stated that it's unfair to single out Tiger Woods among all PGA golfers for questions concerning his position on Augusta's policy. Unfortunately, there's only one problem. This isn't something that the press pushed on Woods, it's an issue Woods raised himself in his very first Nike ad -- the one where he claimed that there were certain country clubs in the U.S. where he couldn't play golf because of his race. After that, it's simply natural to ask Woods where he stands on the Augusta issue, and reporters were right to continue to press him on it throughout the Spring and Summer. Whether or not one agrees with the folks attacking Augusta National is a seperate issue entirely.
Eric
11:42 AM
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