Too Bad CBS Stayed the Course

CBS shrank the world Saturday.

The network trained its Eye on the 7,290-yard golf course at Augusta National, taped blinders on the sides of its cameras and nothing else could intrude.

No commercials interrupted to sell cars or financial planning.

CBS never picked up a satellite feed about the looting in Baghdad or any remaining pockets of resistance in Iraq.

And it certainly didn’t bother to cross Washington Road to check in on Martha Burk’s protest of Augusta National’s men-only membership policy.

For close to four hours, the Masters operated in a broadcast vacuum. Those who watch sports to escape reality got their ultimate wish. They could tune in to see golf and pretend nothing else existed -- which apparently was the belief at CBS.

CBS’ sole concern was to extend its Masters contract for another year, rather than report the news of the day. Remember, this is the club that won’t even allow the announcers to say “rough.” At Augusta, it’s the “second cut.” By kowtowing to he course, CBS failed the principal responsibility of a television network: to inform the masses.

After all of the newsprint and air time that has been devoted to Burk’s squabble with Augusta National Chairman Hootie Johnson, the showdown day came without so much as a single acknowledgment of it during tournament coverage.

The controversy was relevant, just as relevant as Kansas Coach Roy Williams’ job future after the NCAA championship game that aired on CBS last Monday night. Was CBS afraid that another expletive would slip out over its airwaves if a reporter made like Bonnie Bernstein and asked the uncomfortable-but-necessary questions?

At the very least, the network should have set the context for this most unusual Masters.

ESPNews (which, when last I checked, was a network dedicated to sports news) included a story about Burk’s protest in its Masters coverage Saturday morning.

Even the CBS Sportsline.com Web site ran a story about the protest.

But when the CBS network broadcast began, there were highlights of the first two rounds and a montage of past championships, then on to third-round action.

Not a word about Burk. Even if the protest was minimal, with about 50 supporters turning up at their designated site down the street from the main gate, it was a story. At face value, 49 guys playing a round of golf on a nice spring day at a private club in Georgia isn’t national news either.

The Masters is a story because it has been built up in lore over the years, and Martha vs. Hootie was a story because it has been the focus of a media storm over the past six months.

If the only thing tangible to come out of Burk’s push to have a female member at Augusta was Johnson’s decision to release the broadcast sponsors so they wouldn’t be targeted for protests themselves, CBS should have explained why this edition of the Masters was commercial-free.

The only breaks in the coverage were a couple of quasi-public service announcements for the PGA’s First Tee program.

And the only nod to the dominant news story of the year was in a message from Augusta National Vice Chairman Joe Ford, who mentioned how proud he was of all the troops serving overseas.

That was more than anyone with a CBS microphone bothered to say. At a quarter to 1, ABC cut away from its coverage of the Mighty Duck-Detroit playoff hockey game to go to its New York news studio for an update on the war in Iraq.

CBS cut away from the course to show Jim Nantz and Lanny Wadkins sitting by a fireplace, analyzing the tournament.

If CBS execs didn’t think their viewers cared about the news, didn’t they at least owe it to Dan Rather? The 71-year-old anchor hustled to the Middle East, where he and his CBS crew members had to flee gun-toting Iraqis, and he couldn’t get a second of face time all afternoon?

About an hour later, the contrast between ABC and CBS was even more jarring. On ABC was footage of America’s most famous female solider, Jessica Lynch, returning to the United States from a hospital in Germany. So women can risk their lives in America’s armed forces, but they’re not allowed to join America’s most elite golf club?

As golf continued over at the Masters, it was as if CBS was orchestrating the tournament. What threatened to become a runaway led by Mike Weir (who’s so plain that the best an announcer could provide on him was that he’s like a left-handed version of the equally nondescript David Toms) grew tight.

Weir lost a six-stroke lead. And Tiger Woods had returned from the brink of missing the cut to within four shots of the new leader, Jeff Maggert.

That’s quite a leaderboard CBS had to offer to hype today’s coverage.

There’s Maggert and Weir, in search of their first major. There’s Vijay Singh and Jose Maria Olazabal, who already have green jackets hanging in the closet, and Toms, the 2001 PGA Championship winner. There’s Phil Mickelson, with yet another chance to erase his title of the best player not to win a major.

And of course there’s Woods, an even better ratings draw than a Michael Jackson special.

“We’ve been reminded once again why this is such a special tournament,” Nantz said.

Yep. How many other tournaments can make the rest of the world disappear?

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com