After Furor, N.Y. Times Prints Rejected Columns on Augusta

The New York Times published two sports columns today about the Augusta National Golf Club’s refusal to admit women that the newspaper’s editors initially had rejected. The decision to run the columns came after the paper endured heavy criticism from outside observers and its own reporters.

Media experts speculated that the Times spiked the columns because they conflicted with the paper’s editorial stance on the Augusta National issue. That raised the specter that a newspaper, which is charged with encouraging debate of important issues, was silencing its own commentators.

But in a New York Times story Saturday announcing plans to print the columns, Executive Editor Howell Raines said opinions expressed in them had nothing to do with their rejection.

Instead, the story said, a column by Dave Anderson was held because it “gave the appearance of unnecessary intramural squabbling” with the paper’s editorial board, and a column by Harvey Araton had “problems of structure and tone.”

Raines said in the story: “Some of the commentary said, ‘It’s wrong to censor opinions of columnists.’ I agree with that. That’s not what happened here.”

He added: “There is not now, nor will there ever be, any attempt to curb the opinions of our writers.”

Raines refused further comment Saturday, said Catherine Mathis, a Times spokeswoman.

The paper reported it would print “revised versions” of the columns, but Mathis said that meant they would go through “normal editing” and be adjusted to reflect that two weeks had passed since they had been written.

Mathis refused to comment on whether the controversy played a role in the decision to publish the columns.

Media experts Saturday praised the decision to print the columns but said the episode remained troubling.

“You don’t spike or kill opinion because it differs from something that may or may not have run on an editorial page,” said Sandy Padwe, an associate professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. “I never thought that kind of thing would happen at the New York Times, and that it did is absolutely shocking.”

The columns dealt with Augusta’s refusal to admit women as members, a story that the Times has pursued aggressively in its news and editorial pages. A Nov. 18 editorial suggested that premier golfer Tiger Woods should boycott the Masters tournament, the prestigious golf match held at the club, to force the organization to admit women.

The column by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Anderson argued that Woods should not have to forgo the tournament. His piece made a “passing reference” to the Nov. 18 editorial, the Times story said. Araton’s column raised questions about the significance of the Augusta issue, it said.

Neither columnist returned phone calls to their office Saturday.

Media observers said they were not persuaded by the Times’ explanation for why the columns were held. If the stories required only minor revisions, the changes should have been made during the regular editing process and the stories should have run promptly, they said.

“Their explanations really didn’t match their actions,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a think tank affiliated with the Columbia journalism school. “Their actions appeared as though they didn’t want anybody to contradict the opinions of their editorial page.”

The furor erupted last week when the New York Daily News reported that the columns had been spiked.