NYT reporter says she would boycott Masters until women allowed at Augusta

I wouldn't like to see this. I don't believe that as employees we have the right to drag the newspaper into any kind of pet-cause pissiness without apparent warning to the bosses, who usually do not react well to surprises. But humans are gonna be humans, what can you do. Flip side, I don't think Sexton should have commented. You just make it much worse. I've been in a couple newsrooms where a news-sider said something politically inconvenient off-hand in public -- not really intending to stir shit, just being themselves for a moment -- and the editors treated it as no big deal for public and in-house consumption. Whatever they told the reporter (if anything) was between them, as it should be.

 

No, and I'll tell you why.

Back in a previous life, I was a writer. And being a writer and covering a sport, you see how the sausage is made. You see who's an asshole and who's a good person. And we'd talk about it in the press box. In front of those who manage/run the sport. Tony Stewart is a giant, raging sexist asshole. Like, the worst. Never heard him call a woman not named Lee Spencer or Jenna Fryer by their first name. They were honey, and sweetie, and dear. I covered that beat for five years. I had a one-hour one-on-one with him in which I was going through his phone, looking at the cars he'd bought at Barrett Jackson. When he left the room, do you know what he called me to his PR guy? "That girl from Richmond." A. I was 33 years old. Not a girl. B. Learn my fucking name.

But I DIDN'T call him a giant, raging sexist asshole in my piece. Because my job is to write the story. I'm not a columnist. Never was. So it wasn't my place.

And you'll argue that what I said didn't appear in another outlet's copy. I'll give you that. But merely saying that what you're covering is a piece of shit doesn't make you incapable of covering it.

 

You make a very good point. But, yes, the fact remains that her statement that she'd just as soon not cover ANOTHER Masters is out there in black and white. It may not, and probably won't, affect how SHE would cover it. It might affect her interaction with Augusta National.

 

Right. But she also said "if it were up to me." And I'm sure when her editor "spoke" to her, he made clear it was not up to her. And she could feel however she wanted to, and he saw where she was coming from, but if she wants to cover golf, this comes with the deal.

She has the option to walk away. But I'm guessing her convictions aren't that strong, which is why she couched her statement TWICE.

 

Smart analysis IJAG.

When you read stories like this one in The Atlantic it makes the annual complaints about The Masters seem
shallow:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/04/to-be-a-woman-in-pakistan-six-stories-of-abuse-shame-and-survival/255585/

"According to a 2011 poll of experts by the Thomson Reuters Foundation Poll, Pakistan is the third most dangerous country for women in the world. It cited the more than 1,000 women and girls murdered in "honor killings" every year and reported that 90 percent of Pakistani women suffer from domestic violence.

Westerners usually associate the plight of Pakistani women with religious oppression, but the reality is far more complicated. A certain mentality is deeply ingrained in strictly patriarchal societies like Pakistan. Poor and uneducated women must struggle daily for basic rights, recognition, and respect. They must live in a culture that defines them by the male figures in their lives, even though these women are often the breadwinners for their families."

 

And yet the Karachi Golf Club allows women.

www.karachigolf.com.pk

 

Yeah, but if you come in second place in the annual husband/wife tournament, it's grounds for an honor killing.

 

I thought it was pretty cool of Bubba Watson to stiff Billy Payne on the handshake -- obviously he was standing in solidarity with Crouse.

http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2012-articles/april/breaking-down-bubba-watsons-missed-handshake-with-billy-payne.html

 

Yes, her entire gender is being discriminated against because Augusta National won't invite one rich woman to be a member.
And when the club invites that one woman, all gender inequity will be solved. Women will have equal access to jobs, they'll get paid the same as men. All 50 states will ratify the equal rights amendment. All sexual harassment in the workplace will end. There will be no more sexual assaults.
It will be Nirvana.

 

Come as you are.

 

Whatever that means. But feel free to actually address the issue.

 

Just random musings. I like your terrestrial pissings.
But I do think that "come as you are" perfectly addresses the issue.