Media are off their game

Friday was a strange day in Palm Desert.

At a historic golf tournament named in honor of one of the funniest men to ever live, the undercurrent of the day was anything but a laughing matter.

Sure, bogeys and birdies were chatted up during the third round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, as they always are. But the bigger buzz, sadly, was racism and misguided media.

The first part of the story has been out there for about two weeks. Kelly Tilghman, Golf Channel anchor, made an inadvertent comment during some broadcast chatter on Jan. 4 that the only way to stop Tiger Woods was to “lynch him in a back alley.”

It was a throwaway line, a joke, a stupidly miscalculated foot in her mouth.

Most people cut her some slack. She is well-liked among pro golfers and they, for the most part, said her two-week suspension was justified, and severe enough.

Mark O’Meara said Friday, “All the players are on the side of Kelly, because they know her and know she is a nice person.”

Fred Couples said, “She’s talking for four hours. You kind of understand.”

Woods, who would stand to be among those most offended by any statement about “lynching,” accepted her apology immediately.

But others, including civil rights activist Al Sharpton, felt a need to do more than merely shrug, say oops, and give her a pass because she is nice and popular.

So the controversy snowballed. Some segments of the media saw it for what it was and handled it evenly. Others, not being able to distinguish noise from substance, turned up the volume full bore.

Then it got worse.

A magazine apparently seen by hundreds, Golfweek, decided that it would report on the controversy by putting a picture of a hanging noose on its cover. Up went the volume again.

On Friday, the editor of the magazine was fired and the publisher and new editor spent much of the day saying they were sorry and admitting what a horrendous breach of judgment it had been.

“The guy [editor] had all week to sit around and think about this,” Couples said. “He must be an idiot.”

Nope. Probably not.

More likely, he is the product of the current age and rage of media, as well as society in general.

We blog before we report, when it should be the other way around.

We write more about ourselves than we do about our subjects. We have Facebook and YouTube, and we see the world as being all about us, on all topics, every day. News isn’t news unless we agree with it.

We are afraid of quiet. Our children don’t see the world around them in our minivans. They watch TV.

The editor of Golfweek who put the noose on the cover probably went home that night, thinking he had done what his bosses and the world around him kept telling him -- to think outside the box, be creative, groundbreaking, innovative.

There is a fine line between those things and stupidity, of course.

Our society has a massive appetite for drama, and little for reality. We read about Britney Spears when we need to read about Afghanistan. And the media, which has the mandate -- and the constitutional right -- to lead us from this abyss, are all too often not doing so. Media, which once led public opinion, now all too often follow it.

We aren’t just talking celebrity scandal sheets, weekly shoppers and sports-talk radio.

Last week, a Los Angeles bureau executive of the Associated Press, no less, put out a memo to staff that said they were to pay more attention to developments about Britney Spears. The message was: She is news.

No she isn’t. She is titillation. She is a troubled young woman whom we cover with delight, rather than empathy. She is web hits, the current fool’s gold of the newspaper industry.

Out of this toxic atmosphere comes the current chapter of the Kelly Tilghman story. Racism is ugly, even the inadvertent kind. Perpetuation of racism under the guise of journalistic creativity is worse.

The consumer, especially the more thoughtful type, is both aware and confused.

Seth and Kaye Ward of Fort Collins, Colo., are in Palm Desert to watch the tournament and “thaw out.” They had heard about the Tilghman controversy, said they were dismayed by the magazine cover and mostly wondered why everybody can’t lighten up a little, turn the volume down.

Seth Ward told about a dinner they attended in Colorado on Wednesday night, a dinner to honor Hank Brown, University of Colorado president.

One of the speakers “made a political joke,” he said. “He said that, if Barack Obama won the election, we would no longer be able to call it the White House.”

Ward said it was stupid, everybody knew it was stupid, and the guy who said it felt awful afterward. “The next day, that was the story,” Ward said. “Not the guy who was being honored.”

Racism needs to be reported. Blatant, inadvertent, miscalculated, all kinds. What doesn’t need to happen is for it to become a forum for noise, web hits, marketing and lost perspective.

Tilghman will be back to work next week at the Buick Invitational at La Jolla. Tiger will play there. Both will be asked about this, as they need to be. In person. Having had time to digest all of this and think through a proper response.

Then it can end. Until the next issue, the next drama, the next chance for media to go overboard and, instead of leading the public, as is its sacred trust, continue to pander to it.

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Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com.

To read previous columns, go to latimes.com/dwyre.