Lynch Mobs - Let It All Hang Out

If after reading this post, you think I'm out to anathematize Al Sharpton - I am!

The Golf Channel's Nick Faldo and Kelly Tilghman
Dang me, dang me
They oughta take a rope and hang me
High from the highest tree
Woman would you weep for me? - "Dang Me" by Roger Miller

A TV sports presenter has been suspended for making a racist remark live on air about golfer Tiger Woods.
....Kelly Tilghman was fronting a U.S. TV programme with Britain's Nick Faldo when she suggested rival players should "lynch" the world number one as the only way to beat him.
....There was immediate outrage and bosses at the Golf Channel suspended her for two weeks while considering whether she should be fired from her £150,000 a year job.
....Civil rights activist the Reverend Al Sharpton called for the TV presenter to be sacked for what he called an "insult to all blacks". Lynching is a particularly offensive word for black Americans. The white supremacist Ku Klux Klan regularly lynched its victims and hanging was the favored form of execution used by slave owners.
....The 37-year-old presenter's gaffe came as she and former champion Faldo discussed young players who could challenge Woods.

Slithering out from under his rock, Al Sharpton has appeared for another fifteen minutes of fame as a crusader for the venomous movement called "Political Correctness."

The wire sevices picked up this story from the British news reports. While reporters the world over tend to sensationalize the news, the British have made it an art form. In the five paragraphs above of the British news report, I have singled out a few words in blue that have made the story bigger than it should be. It should be noted that the true sequence of events is not represented in the reports.

Tilghman and Faldo are the Golf Channel's successful team of presenters. Doing color commentary of a round of golf featuring Tiger Woods, Faldo suggested that "to take Tiger on, maybe they should just gang up for a while."
...."Lynch him in a back alley," Tilghman replied laughing.
....Realizing that what she'd said might be misconstrued, Kelly contacted Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, detailed what she'd said and apologized.
....Steinberg responded to press queries, ""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." He said he considered the matter closed.
....It was nearly twenty-four hours later when Sharpton heard about Tilghman's ill-advised usage of the term "lynch."
....Tiger Woods, through his agent referred to the whole matter as "no big deal." She and Woods have known each other for 12 years and he recently chose her to host a demonstration of new clubs endorsed by him near his home in Florida.
....But Al Sharpton said, "Lynching is not murder in general. It's a specific racial term that this woman should be held accountable for. Whether she's a racist is immaterial. The channel has to be accountable to the public."
....A spokesman for the Golf Channel, which recently signed a 15-year deal to cover U.S. professional golf, said: "While we believe Kelly's choice of words was inadvertent and that she did not intend them in an offensive manner, the words were hurtful and grossly inappropriate. Consequently, we have decided to suspend Kelly for two weeks."

In the final analysis, there was no story and it was a non-issue until Sharpton stuck his nose into the affair and opened his jowls. His intervention was in fact the only part of the story that was racist.

Political Correctness would be better served, if Al Sharpton were denied all access to every reporter, every microphone and every camera covering any news story about anything sensitive in nature. If Tiger Woods, or anyone else involved had taken offense to her words and had made an outcry over the matter, then I would say, "Go ahead Al. Knock yourself out."

It is unfortunate that Kelly chose to use that word, but it is obvious that she used it in jest and figuratively in response to Faldo's comment. I saw the video of the exchange in their pressbox. Only an idiot could have misconstrued her statement as racially insensitive. Enter Al Sharpton, he who isn't known as the sharpton-est knife in the drawer anyway.

It is an unfortunate truism that Sharpton and others actually perpetuate the bigotry they purport to be fighting against.

So remember, the next time you say you've been slaving over a hot stove while your husband watches sports on TV, look around first to make sure that Al Sharpton isn't lurking nearby ... in the bushes ... under a rock ...

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