| About | |
| Contact Us | |
| Articles | |
| Topic Index | |
| Reports | |
| Quotes | |
| On the Web | |
| Links | |
| TW Tracker | |
| Support | |
Times Watch for
April 6, 2004
The
Times, Martha Burk, and the 2003 Masters
Last year the Times stoked controversy over the all-male membership of Augusta National Golf Club, home of The Masters golf tournament. But the actual protest fizzled, as the Times ended up producing more stories on the upcoming protest (around 80) than there were actual protesters (about 40) at Augusta.
A timely new book on the firestorm, "The Battle for Augusta National," by Sports Illustrated writer Alan Shipnuck, features comments by Times Watch director Clay Waters in its chapter on the unprecedented advocacy role the New York Times and former editor Howell Raines played in forcing Martha Burk and Augusta onto the national agenda. Waters' comments also appear in the online edition of Sports Illustrated magazine in an excerpt of Shipnuck's book.
In the book, Waters notes the phenomenon of Internet political web logs, known as "blogs," and describes the "blogosphere": "It is a fundamentally conservative/Libertarian medium because liberals already have their own media outlets. They have the networks, CNN, The New York Times. They don't need any more platforms. Conservatives have to create their own, whether it's Fox News or blogs."
Waters outlines the conservative web's opinion of ultra-liberal former Times executive editor Howell Raines: "There has always been a low roar about Howell Raines and the Times....It raises eyebrows any time an editorial-page editor moves to the news side, especially an ideologue like Raines. Naturally you wonder if they can be fair and objective."
Shipnuck also scores an interview with Raines, who is unrepentant about his paper's pursuit of the Augusta National story: "The Times' future is as a national newspaper, which means it's got to be strong on this kind of story. Augusta National is not a New York story per se, but I think it was important to the national readership."
Shipnuck writes: "Raines was flooding the zone with glee, and some inside and outside the paper were drowning in disbelief."
The biggest Masters' controversy came to light in December (itself a sign of how deeply the Times was involved in making an issue of the April sports event). Raines and managing editor Gerald Boyd spiked columns by Times sports columnists Harvey Araton and Dave Anderson that differed with the paper's editorial-page line on Augusta National.
Shipnuck argues: "The controversy about the columns destroyed the paper's momentum on Augusta National….with four months to go until the Masters, the Gray Lady would never recapture the same swagger or relevance."
Yet as Times Watch noted, that didn't stop the paper from running misleading headlines about the anemic protest: "She Did Not Prevail This Year, but Burk Has Time on Her Side."
For more on Alan Shipnuck's "The Battle for Augusta National," click here.
• Augusta National | Martha Burk | Discrimination | Golf | Alan Shipnuck | Sports Illustrated
Burk Ignored,
NYT Scored by CBS's Golf Announcer
What a difference a year makes. Last year around this time, Richard Sandomir was filing a report about Augusta National for the Times business (!) section, giving CBS helpful tips on how to cover the upcoming "protest" led by Martha Burk: “The Saturday protest is to end at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, a half-hour before CBS starts that day's Masters broadcast, but in time for the networks' evening newscasts. Sandy Genelius, a spokeswoman for CBS News, said the news division had no plan yet for how it would cover the protest." Of course, there was very little to cover, as the protest fizzled, attracting some 40 people. (Burk herself left about an hour into it.)
This year, without former executive editor (and anti-Augusta activist) Howell Raines breathing down the paper's collective neck, Sandomir admits in his Tuesday column, "Palmer Eclipses Burk, to Masters' Delight." The teaser line makes a half-hearted attempt to put CBS on the defensive: "Nobody at CBS seems interested in talking about last year's controversy."
Sandomir notes: "…no one is discussing Martha Burk or sex discrimination at Augusta National Golf Club. There will be no demands that sponsors pull out of the Masters or that CBS not carry it. The big story is not, as it was last year, whether Hootie Johnson, Augusta's chairman, would duke it out with Burk with mashies at 10 paces on the road leading into the club. Instead it is Arnold Palmer's 50th and final Masters go-round."
Sandomir reminds us of the specifics of the Burk issue while glossing over the Times valiant effort in making it an issue in the first place: "For its part, CBS Sports would much rather discuss golf than corporate controversy. During last year's broadcast, CBS Sports ignored the issues raised by Burk and her far-smaller-than-expected protest down the road from the golf club. This time, CBS is reacting much the same way, but it is not besieged by the frenzy caused by Burk when she asserted that sponsors were promoting sex discrimination by advertising on the Masters."
The only hint of the Times flood-the-zone approach to last year's "controversy" is when CBS golf announcer Jim Nantz, on a conference call with reporters, responds to a question apparently from Sandomir himself. Nantz replied: "I knew in advance last year that everybody saw the headlines. Your paper was responsible for 38 stories on that, including the day of…I won't even get into that."
Sandomir notes Burk isn't done yet, while admitting her cause appears moribund: "At the National Press Club today, she is expected to announce a plan to investigate alleged incidents of sex discrimination on Wall Street, with an eye toward companies like American Express and JP Morgan Chase, which have executives who are Augusta members. Whether Burk, the chairwoman of the National Council of Women's Organizations, succeeds in her ultimate goal of forcing Augusta to add women as members seems doubtful, at least for now. She did not win last year, and the world may not be listening as it once did. Golfers, especially Woods, are not being peppered with the questions raised by Burk. And in Burk's yearlong absence from the Augusta barricades, other women have not publicly taken up the cause she has espoused. For now, the primary question is: will Arnie make the cut?"
What a refreshing change.
For Sandomir in full, click here.
• Augusta National | Martha Burk | Discrimination | Golf | Richard Sandomir
Back to Golf at Augusta, at Last?
The headline to Tuesday's story by sports reporter Clifton Brown admits the obvious: "Game, Not Membership, Is Hot Topic at Masters."
Brown writes: "A year after being engulfed by controversy, Augusta National Golf Club was engulfed Monday by heavy traffic, bright sunshine and thousands of eager fans pouring through the gates. If the rest of the week mirrors the first day of practice, the 68th Masters will be far different than last year's Masters. The debate surrounding Augusta National's all-men's membership dominated pre-tournament talk a year ago, as Martha Burk, the chairwoman of the National Council of Women's Organizations, was quoted more often than Tiger Woods….Burk's much-anticipated protest fizzled last year, attracting more reporters than demonstrators….The focus at Augusta has returned to what happens between the ropes, and the players didn't mind at all."
The question to ask as the rest of Masters' week unfolds: Will the Times let the controversy end there?
For the rest of Brown's story on The Masters, click here.
• Augusta National | Clifton Brown | Martha Burk | Discrimination | Golf
E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org