PGA honors golf writers, but is it really journalism?

Tim, I certainly agree with your premise that good reporting and promoting are two vastly different things. However, I disagree with you about Jim McKay. Not only was McKay a broadcaster, but in his role as broadcaster he was a very fine reporter as well. I don't think there's anyone on TV today who's quite as good in that respect as Jim McKay. I don't remember feeling that McKay was carrying water for anyone during his broadcasts. He was a solid journalist, in my opinion, and there were times -- such as Munich, 1972 -- when those reporting skills were called into action in a very serious way.

TIM,

JUST STUMBLED ACROSS YOUR BLOG AND FOUND YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT THE AWARD FOR 'PROMOTING GOLF' TO BE INTERESTING.

I WOULD AGREE..JOURNALISTS SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN AN AWARD FOR PROMOTING ANYTHING. I LIVE AND BROADCAST IN CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA AND LIKE YOU, I DO NOT KNOW RON GREEN, SR..EXCEPT TO KNOW HE IS A FINE WRITER.

MY BEEF WITH YOU HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR MAIN ARGUEMENT. IT HAS TO DO WITH WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT KEN VENTURI AND JIM MCKAY. MY GUESS IS IT WAS JUST AN UNFORTUNATE CHOICE OF WORDS. YES, PERHAPS THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GIVEN AN AWARD FOR PROMOTING GOLF, BUT TO SAY THAT JIM MCKAY IS NOT A 'REAL' JOURNALIST IS AN UNFORTUNATE STATEMENT, IF NOT LUDICROUS. YOU AND I WOULD BOTH HOPE TO BE AS GOOD AS A JOURNALIST. HIS COVERAGE OF THE MUNICH OLYMPIC KILLINGS ALONE WOULD MORE THAN QUALIFY HIM. IN SHORT, HE WAS ONE OF THE GREAT SPORTS REPORTERS EVER, IF NOT TO SAY ONE OF THE GREAT REPORTERS. I AM HOPEFUL YOU HAVE NOT FALLEN INTO THE TRAP THAT MANY WRITERS DO, THAT BECAUSE SOME OF US BROADCAST ON TELEVISION, WE CAN'T KNOW MUCH OR REPORT MUCH. I CAN ASSURE YOU I KNOW MANY BROADCASTERS, INCLUDING MYSELF, WHO I THINK WOULD QUALIFY AS JOURNALISTS, WELL AHEAD OF SOME WRITERS I KNOW.

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME AND TROUBLE...

JOHN SNYDER...

OK, you guys. I give up. Including Jim McKay was probably a mistake.

And no, I don't include all broadcasters as non-journalists. There are quite a few good ones.

Tim,
As sports editor at The Charlotte Observer, I can assure you Ron Green "promotes" golf only through his fine writing on the sport for many, many years. He didn't get to choose the wording the PGA chose for the award, and probably wouldn't agree with it in the way you define promotion.
That said, it's an honor, and one Ron should be proud of. He has covered the greats of the game for 50 years, introducing them to the readers of the Carolinas. If that promoted the game here, it was a byproduct, not the intent.

Hey, Mike, you're the sports editor at the Charlotte Observer? I had words with one of its editors; her last name was "Pope." I can tell you that I won't soon forget her and that she is on my blacklist.

Mike, well-said. As you point out, Green didn't choose the wording of the award. I stress again that my problem is not with the winners of the award, for the most part, but with the non-journalistic entities that make up the selection committee, who deign to hand out a "journalism" award.

Eeegads, Mike! If one of your editors, this Pope woman, is now on Under Par's blacklist, do you know what this means!?






A: That she joins 99% of the human race on that list. LOL!