Excuse me?
by digby
I'm sure you've heard that the male only Augusta golf course has refused to give an honorary membership to the CEO of one of The Masters tournament corporate sponsors. You see, IBM has a female CEO. Apparently even huge money can't outweigh the antediluvian practices of this stupid club.
Unfortunately, Augusta isn't the only throwback institution:
The golf writer for the New York Times told a website Thursday she wouldn't want to cover the Masters again until Augusta National invites a woman to be a member.
"If it were left to me, which it seldom is in the power structure of writer versus editor, I'd probably not come cover this event again until there is a woman member," Karen Crouse told GOLF.com. "More and more, the lack of a woman member is just a blue elephant in the room."
Contacted by The Associated Press, Times sports editor Joe Sexton said the comments were, "completely inappropriate and she has been spoken to."
That's appalling. Particularly in light of the controversy she's discussing and her personal experience with it:
Questions about membership were raised at Augusta National chairman Billy Payne's annual news conference Wednesday - the day before the Masters began. Crouse, who became the Times' golf writer last year, attended the briefing, along with more than 100 reporters. Though he was asked repeatedly about women being admitted, Payne maintained it was a club matter and declined to discuss it.
Crouse asked Payne what he would say to his granddaughters about the club not having women as members. Payne said it was a question that deals with membership and declined to answer. She followed up by saying it was a "kitchen-table question, a personal question." Payne responded: "Well, my conversations with my granddaughters are also private."
In a column published Thursday in the Times, Crouse criticized Augusta National, saying the club "founded in 1933 on the bedrock of segregation is obviously not so easily rebuilt - or even touched." Crouse wrote that she was the only woman at the news conference to ask a question and that she held her hand up for 20 minutes before she was called on.
And she's the one who is "inappropriate" and "has been spoken to"? Bullshit.
The NY Times should say they are no longer going to cover the event. It's golf, not the middle east. The world will not stop if they refuse to cover it. At the very least you'd think they would support their reporter rather than scolding her like a child for speaking out.
Oh, and IBM should pull out too. Do you think they would participate in an event today that excludes their CEO for being black or Jewish? For that matter, would they participate in an event that excludes anyone for being black or Jewish?
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