Ted Bishop of the Professional Golfers Assn. of America canned for misspeak…

Recently, the (now former) president of the PGA, Mr. Ted Bishop, got caught up in an emotional and ill advised text message sequence to Mr. Ian Poulter, a member of the European and PGA tours. Bishop was viscerally objecting to comments Poulter had made in his book, No Limits, that were apparently derogatory to Hall of Fame golfer Nick Faldo. In his Twitter tweets—which go out for the world to see—Bishop likened Poulter’s negative statements about Faldo to being like what a little girl (“l’il girl”) would say. Whoops!

So basically Ted Bishop ‘stepped in it.’ To put it mildly.

Most of us who follow golf affairs, mainly via the Golf Channel and some magazines, were perturbed that Bishop a) first of all, took it upon himself to stick up for Nick Faldo, like, “who asked him to butt in, anyway,” and b) would adopt puerile playground language—that every boy in America has been acculturated to use (wrongly or rightly) to set his self-image on the manly man development track—in heated conversation with another adult. He may as well have stuck out his tongue and uttered, “Nah, nah, nah-nah-nah.” Really, now!

I doubt that more than one out of ten real persons, even in TV-Consensus-Reality-Collective—men or women—consider Bishop’s calling Poulter a little girl was sexist. [If by sexist one means diminishing one sex or the other as inherently inferior. If Bishop had used ‘little boy’ as an insult (which would have made more sense), would that have been sexist toward men? No, because the meaning of both boy and girl in the context is “immature and childish.” Which is exactly what Bishop meant. He was calling Poulter childish. Now one can make a case that Bishop is a ‘childist,’ and I’m astonished nobody in the media PC bloodsucker ranks sought to lynch Bishop as a childist.] No, Bishop’s calling Poulter a little girl was childish.

Speaking of lynching… that brings to mind Kelly Tilghman. Which I’ll get to below.

So Bishop was guilty of being childish and emotional. Himma culpa. And at the time he was president of one of the most prestigious and voluminous sports’ associations in the world—the 27,000-strong PGA of America. It’s a volunteer post, he’s not paid. He’s made controversial stands, notably favoring retaining the long putter… the anchored stroke of which will no longer be permitted after January 1, 2016. Many consider him responsible for picking golfing legend Tom Watson to lead America’s Ryder Cup team for 2014, which was trounced by the Europeans in Scotland. In short, Bishop bucked the system here and there, didn’t always fall in with the corporate party line.

But everyone seemed to agree he was a straight up, genuine, kind and gentle fellow.

His tenure was marked with many accomplishments, particularly (ironically) in opening the game up to women and girls. Nonetheless, when the Berserker media PC Slime Monster rises, it’s awfully hard for a decent individual who misspeaks to find cover and save his anatomy. At least if he’s a man. I go back to Don Imus and, golf commentator, Ben Wright… both shishkabobbed and dismissed for a) Imus speaking mockingly (of black rapper culture) by emulating rapper lingo about a women’s basketball team and b) Wright in an unguarded moment expressing his view that women’s golf suffered because of perceptions of lesbianism.

And then there’s poor ol’ Jimmy the Greek.

For the latter gentleman, the PC skewering was abrupt and shrill, all about Jimmy being a racist for suggesting—he was told by the reporter that his comments were off the record—that genetic qualities were relevant to black men’s athletic success. That he was probably correct in the essence of his assertion became irrelevant because “what the heck does a Las Vegas bookie know about genetics or sociology?”. Good point. He was speaking off the cuff. His exact verbiage was careless and he apologized for his statements. Too late. CBS fired him immediately… for “the perception of racism.”

What about Kelly Tilghman?

From which I transition to the Golf Channel’s Kelly Tilghman, who, made remarks about Tiger Woods during a January 4, 2008, PGA Tour Telecast:  In response to some joking banter from coanchor Nick Faldo that in order to win, today’s young players need to “gang up on” Tiger Woods, Kelly in a similar jocular vein said, “right, like lynch him in the back alley or something.” Her words sent the Al Sharpton Sanctimonious Faux Racism Blowhard Brigade into overdrive, calling on national news for her head… even though Tiger Woods himself said he thought nothing of it. The Golf Channel eventually suspended Kelly for two weeks, and that was basically the end of it. Too bad for Al.

I tweeted the Golf Channel: “Re: PGA’s Ted Bishop’s social media use of l’il girl, let’s compare to Kelly Tilghman’s supposed racist comments on lynching.” But no one has come back and nobody on Morning Drive—which Kelly hosted a couple of times when they discussed the Ted Bishop affair—has had the gumption to state the obvious: “Hey, Kelly, didn’t you step in it, too, back in 2008, you said something off the cuff that sounded racist to some people and caused an uproar?  But was certainly not racist. How does it make sense that you got to keep your job while this good, clearly nonsexist man over here, who’s done so much for the game, who did the same silly thing you did, is vilified as a sexist and cast to the PC bloodsuckers?”

Kelly surely didn’t bring up the obvious. I DVR Morning Drive most mornings and saw the PC minions, including hosts Paige Mackenzie, Gary Williams, Lauren Thompson, parade through with obligatory disclaimers against sexism, and a couple of PGA Tour players saying the same thing. Even though many of them know Ted Bishop as an admirable, moral, and simply wonderful and sympathetic man. But also with fear in their eyes that they might say the wrong thing the wrong way in front of a swarm of PC police… thus wind up on the junk heap with him. The best of the commentators were bold enough to state that Bishop’s ouster did not fit the offense. We’ll see if they have their contracts renewed.

It reminds me of the proverbial witch hunt, in fact my image of the PC brigade is the McCarthy Hearings in the 1950s supposedly to root out communists in Hollywood. If you dared suggest that you stood on your Constitutionally guaranteed rights of freedom of speech and association, the executive cowards in the movie studios would can you as a sympathizer… and many of your fellow workers would disassociate themselves for fear of being brought up in front of same the committee of sleazeball, moralizing politicians. Nothing’s changed. Back then, a handful of actors, directors, and writers stood out against the McCarthy insanity. Today on television, most everyone is scared of his own shadow. And that’s what’s scary:

“I’ll just say what my massuhs want me to say and not venture any opinions of my own.”

But sometimes, as in the movie Network, someone like Howard Beale comes along to lift us up, and the man in the street finds his courage, opening the window and shouting to the world, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” I have read that the PGA professionals who make up the membership are 3 to 1 in favor of Ted Bishop and wholeheartedly against the PGA corporate board of craven d**ks and p***ies (ducks and pansies) for their lowlife, suckup behavior. I’d really like to see an uprising of the PGA rank and file—boys and girls—to oust the board and reinstate Ted Bishop with honors. Saying, “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take this PC s–t (soot) anymore.” Death to the Media PC Slime Monster!

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