Tilghman's bad joke | The Week

WHAT HAPPENED Golf Channel executives said this week that support is growing for anchor Kelly Tilghman, who is serving a two-week suspension for saying on the air that young players would

have to “lynch” Tiger Woods “in a back alley” to end his dominance. Tilghman apologized on the air and in person to her friend Woods, who said through a spokesman that the remark was a

“non-issue.” The Rev. Al Sharpton called for Tilghman to be fired, saying the racially insensitive comment was “beyond the pale.” (_Orlando Sentinel_) WHAT THE COMMENTATORS SAID SUBSCRIBE TO

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morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the

best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Woods and Sharpton are both wrong, said Leonard Pitts in _The Miami Herald_ (free registration). Woods dismisses every disgusting joke

about his African American heritage. What would it take to “get a rise out of this guy—burning crosses on his front lawn?” But Tilghman has paid for her “brain cramp.” She apologized, she

was suspended, “so my advice to Rev. Al: Move on.” Forget firing, said Langston Wertz Jr. in _The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer_. Even the suspension was excessive. “It was a poor choice of

words”—the kind of thing that happens on live TV—and the “media storm” that followed blew the gaffe out of proportion. The “public shame” that Tilghman has faced in the days since has been

“punishment enough.” Sorry, but the suspension was warranted, said Leonard Shapiro in _The Washington Post_ (free registration), and it was “just about the right length.” But this was not

firing offense like Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder’s “repugnantly racist remarks on slave breeding.” It was mostly a sad reminder that, on live TV, “silence often can be golden, with no mindless

quips necessary.” A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com