Should Kelly Tilghman be fired for "lynch" Tiger remark?
The Golf Channel's main anchor Kelly Tilghman made a flip remark during Friday's Mercedes broadcast that today's young players should "lynch him [Tiger Woods] in a back alley." Tilghman has since apologized. (More)
UPDATE: We found a copy of the video. We believe it's important for you to be the judge of the entire context. Unfortunately, someone has played around with the ending, but this is the only footage we found so far.
I didn't hear the remark, but on paper it sounds bad. Is it worse than Fuzzy Zoeller's comments after Tiger won the 1997 Masters?
UPDATE: Kelly Tilghman has issued this "apology": "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."
The Golf Channel issued this statement: "We regret the unfortunate choice of words that Kelly used during the broadcast and apologize to anyone who was offended by her remarks. We take this matter very seriously. She has apologized privately to Tiger and publicly on the air."
However, Tiger Woods has not issued any statement about whether the apology is sufficient or whether he was hurt or offended by Tilghman's "lynch Tiger" remark. As of yet, I cannot find any reporting of this news on The Golf Channel's own website either. I don't know what to make of Tilghman's "lynch Tiger" remark. It seems so inappropriate and racially insensitive for The Golf Channel's No.1 anchor to say. Even putting aside the racially charged connotations to lynching in this country, the comment seems ridiculous for a golf analyst on TV to say.
Maybe I am missing the context in which it was said. Maybe someone has a better explanation for Tilghman's remark. I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt. She probably won't ever again get an exclusive interview with Tiger, that's my guess. If you have videotape of the comment, please email us the link.
UPDATE: Nick Faldo seemed to condone/affirm Kelly Tilghman's comment. Does he bear any responsibility, too?
UPDATE: Tiger Woods's agent Mark Steinberg issued this statement on behalf of Tiger:
"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. Case closed."
29 Comments:
Mul,
I think it is about time for Kelly to move on anyway. Yaw, she played golf at Duke, a powerhouse Business School. I know there are a lot of the PGA executives from that school...that is great. But for on-air announcing? I would think that TGC could find someone who is not trying to sound like a man when she talks. Maybe Katie Couric is available to take her place.
Umm yes she should. When you make and comment on a black person and connect the dots with "lynch" in your vocabulary and it just flows into a sentence so easily, it shows a heavy insight of how you think of that group of ppl and you only let a fraction leak out by accident. There is no doubt that we are the most sensitive group in the world, however you'll NEVER understand how much it hurts and verifies what WE think you REALLY thing of us as a group. Not to generalize..but a little insight..I don't expect any of you to really understand.
She is apologizing for revealing inner thoughts and getting to comfortable...sadly she must have thought she was at home.
Without a doubt. This strikes me as at least as offensive as the remark that got Imus canned ... and maybe more offensive. Make that definitely more offensive. It has destroyed her credibility and damaged the game, which has struggled for years to get over its white-men-only reputation.
yea apologizing now does nothing. It's far too late. She should be fired immediately!!
Golf Blog-
I have not posted this story on my blog because I couldn't find the exact quote or video clip to add....but I heard it live (on TV) Friday night and right away hit all the golf forums online to see if anyone heard it also. No one had.
While I was not offended, b/c I don't think she had any intention of it's meaning, I can see how others may be. She shouldn't be fired though. The world is becoming too sensitive.
Also, there was not one hit on Google when I searched for "Tilghman Tiger Lynch" Friday night. Today that same search yields nearly 15 unique hits.
Kelly's comments were racist, ignorant, thoughtless, and offensive. She should resign or be fired immediately. She needs lots of therapy and for sure, sensitivity training. Welcome to the Don Imus club, Kelly, not a club that anyone wants to be a member of, for sure.
She shouldn't have said it. But ... lynch, schmynch. If one lived out in the western US he could see little racial innuendo in the remark because out here we lynched people with essentially little regard for their race. I don't think firing is necessarily in order on this issue. But she'll have atough row to how in play by play if she can't select her words more carefully to avoid annoying or offending some.
Negative.
Lynch- murder for supposed crime: to seize somebody believed to have committed a crime and put him or her to death immediately and without trial, usually by hanging
That is a big difference than nappy headed hoes...
The golf exc at the GC need to stop reading into this and drink more Grey Goose
You can hear what she said at this site. http://news.finditt.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=32622&cat=0
The thing that gets me is the fact that both announcers are laughing and having fun about bring violence to Mr Woods. lynching is a very sensitive subject for black because of the recent history (and still today in some parts of the country) but for someone to use this word as a joke is very unacceptable. She should be fired and banned from TV.
She should be fired immediately. But of course she's white and pretty so the white old men who run The Golf Channel, (who are probably thinking the same thing about Tiger), probably won't.
Imus gets fired, Micheal Vick has to go to jail for 23, but she'll slide right by.
Hopefully Tiger will release a wicked statement about her and they'll have no choice but to let her go.
GROW UP PEOPLE! Fired??? A little rough, aren't you. She and Mark Rolfing are the best golf announcers in broadcasting.
I don't see any outcry, or blogs or anything when Tiger swears on live TV. Where is your screaming demand that he be 'terminated'. I haven't heard him apologize for his cursing. That's FAR more offensive than anything Kelly did.
Leave her alone. She's the best!
Rick,
You are a complete knucklehead. How can you say swearing is worse than suggesting someone-especially a black man-should be lynched? You really need to get a clue. She should definitely get fired.
She shouldn't be fired. End of story. There was no intent of a racial slur. If you listen to how she said it and how her colleagues took it, it had no racial meaning.
Simply a bad choice of words. That doesn’t make it right, but lose her job over it? Banned from TV? I think you guys need to stop reading into things too much and drink more grey goose.
Yep. The media does a good job of 'shaking the bush', so to speak. But I would argue that given today's immediate information availability they are provided an incentive to plow into someone's poor choice of words. I am black and have taken her words at face value: just words. But, I had to go through some mental gymnastics to get there. You see, my parents lived through the Jim Crow days of the South and were conditioned to be highly aware of their surroundings - "you can't eat here, you can't use the bathroom there, don't look a white person in the eye" - and so on; If you broke the "law", at that time, the consequences could be dire. More often than not, lynching was not even committed, it was the THREAT of lynching which caused much concern. So, now that the cat is out of the bag - she said what she said - it is for individuals to determine, not only what she meant, but also how her words have elicited certain feelings and thoughts that reach back into the not so distant past.
get a life - politically correct simpletons are at it again. just because you can write doesn't mean anyone cares what you think - I for one don't. She meant nothing other than he is too good for any of his competitors. If any of you were ever dominate at anything you would get it - Tiger certainly does.
I think people just wanna try and make everything worse than it really is!She appologized to Tiger who forgave her cause it meant nothing.And Al Sharpton just tryes to start things up about everything for his own agenda to try to always keep himself in the news.He has people just watching and reading the news so he can get his name into anything he can!!! Kelly should not have even been suspended.Its just another company worried about what Al Sharpton thinks!Stop being so race sensitive America,lighten up everything is not racialy motivated!
The Golf Channel Executives Suck.
They have no balls.
Kelly is a great person and a great announcer.She did not mean anything negative about Tiger. It was a joke, thats all.
Tiger and her are friends.
Tiger should come to her defence.
I think she should be replaced because she is just not a very good anchor/commentator.
If the same "standards" were applied to her that have been applied to others, she would already have been dismissed.
Regardless of the context, lynching should have never been used.
Jim
This is the message I sent to The Golf Channel:
I am shocked and disappointed in TGC's actions against Kelly Tilghman. In your statement you reference her "offensive language" and describe it as "grossly inappropriate". This assessment of her comment seems ironic since one of social goals stated by most minority leaders and by the media is racial transparency. The most frequent example is "Hopefully the day will come when we don't have to say __ is a black quarterback". Clearly the same standard isn't being applied here. If Ms. Tilghman had used the term lynched in reference to a non-African American player no one would have commented. This sort of reaction by black leaders, with its thinly veiled threat of reprisals against TGC and its advertisers, is what's slowing down racial transparency. This is especially disappointing since Tiger Woods has done more to erase the racial divide in sports in America since Joe Lewis. Very sad. Rev. Sharpton et al, you can't have it both ways. Sincerely, Bud, Norcross, GA
Tiger Woods has forgiven Kelly. Everyone else should forgive too. To bring up the matter again and again such as REVEREND Al Sharpton has done, only separates friends. He should know better, if he's reading his Bible. Besides, if he had said something wrong and was forgiven, would he want a bunch of people saying "fire 'em, make 'em resign! and other such things about him?" No, he'd want forgiveness and hope that everybody else would move on too, instead of creating an online riot.
Connie
The Golf Channel has no balls for sure. Caving to Sharpton is beyond pathetic. What's he going to do, have all black golfers boycott viewing? Seems to me the impact would be less than zero. Sharpton's stance is "apology is not sufficient". Well, being that Tiger has already made his official statement saying it's not an issue, let's see Sharpton go after him for letting the comment ride. It's Tiger's chance to say "Hey, Al, I don't need you speaking for me." Will Tiger stand by and watch his friend get canned by Sharpton's perpetual circus side-show? I guess we'll see how stand up he really is.
Let us change the characters a little bit and see if it sparks a backlash from another race. If Tiger was a Jew and the anchor Kelly was a German and she went on to say that the only way to beat Tiger would be to put him in a gas chamber and gas him - how would the Jewish community feel? Let us be objective, because there are still people in this world who had their grandparents lynched and or gassed to death. While I think the punishment is sufficient and I don't believe she meant what has been misconstrued, she is on public television. She has to be held to a higher standard.
The precedence has already been set for commentators saying unintentional stupid things on the media.
Fire her.
I think the issue here is that YT and Imus used terms that were used in a psychologically damaging way in reference to a race of people for several decades. Sticks and stones may break my bones (which can heal), but words will definitely break my spirit, which takes longer to heal. There truly is life and death in the tongue.
True, black people are not the only people with nappy hair but Imus was referring to some black women when he said it and that word was commonly used to refer to black people very often in the slavery, post slavery and civil rights years. YT could have used a different word but why use lynch, which was also a word very commonly used in the slavery, post slavery and civil rights years. The use of those words elicits a knee jerk reaction when heard by blacks, regardless of if we experienced slavery or not. It is a common respect issue because these situations were very damaging to a race of people for a long time.
How many times do we have to cry to people that your words hurt, the sentiments seen when speaking the words hurts. Yes, I believe in freedom of speech but not at the cost of drudging up memories of a history filled with rape, neglect, disrespect for a person as less than human, abduction, and attempts at decimating a culture as a whole. I agree that if it were a comment about a Jewish person, there would be the same if not more serious consequences. I agree with Sharpton bringing attention to the issue. It will make more people think twice before opening their mouth.
Take your mother's advice from the very beginning, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. But then it's like someone said, out of the mouth flows the issues of the heart and the heart is neither black, white or Jewish...all hearts bleed red. And from that viewpoint, that is how God will equally judge all...by your heart not your race. So why can't we get past that too?
Yes, by all means let her be fired for what some people believe was in her heart or mind or subconscious. And Faldo as well, if he laughed at her comment. Then let the self-appointed guardians of the oppressed commence the search for the next victim.
This is a moment of truth for Woods. If he caves to pressure and backs off his initial "no problem" stance, it will not speak well of him.
Absolutely.
Come on! The remark was totally innocent. Why do people try to make something out of nothing? Kelly would have made this comment about ANYONE who is dominating the sport at the time. It's not about race or anything. It's about the best player in the world being so far ahead of his competition. If you don't think so, grow up
I cant believe they didnt fire her for saying this, by the way they are gonna let her rot on air another year or so then she will realize no one likes her anymore then she will leave...I never have liked her anyways her voice is annoying and even more when she doesnt think and spats off racial slurs about the best golfer ever.
Fire her and hire someone who has a heart for golf
Absolutely not. The comment was simply a figure of speech, one that was quite common in the western U.S. for the past century or more referencing livestock rustlers. The correct inference to be drawn from the remark is an off handed analogy to cattle rustling in regards to Wood's dominance of the game. The phrase was often heard when children played "Cowboys and Indians" during the first half of the twentieth century, before "political correctness" became so ridiculously important. Oops! I suppose I should have said "Cowboys and Native mericans" in that sentence.
Bottom line, I support Kelly entirely and I believe she has been unfairly maligned for her comment. Brings to mind McCord's and Whitaker's comments about the Masters tournament. As then, the reactions to the comments border on the ridiculous in my humble opinion.
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