"Is this worse than the original offense?"

Steve Elling blogs about Golfweek's latest cover (which follows, help me here, a pill and some other strange stock photo recently?).

Traditionally conservative Golfweek magazine, one of the game's two national weekly magazines, is courting considerable controversy by putting an image of a hangman's noose on its next edition.

As civil rights activists grumble over Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman's comment Jan. 4 about Tiger Woods, the magazine is unveiling a series of follow-up stories on the issue, which includes feedback from former network broadcaster Ben Wright, who was canned by CBS several years ago for making sexist comments and lying about it to his superiors.

But is emphasizing the noose, given its racist connotations and galling symbolism, a form of intentional journalistic pandering?

"There was a great deal of debate over it," Golfweek editor Dave Seanor said Wednesday of the magazine's in-house deliberations. "But it was the news of the week, no question about it. That's what everybody in the game is talking about."