Thank you for selling some magazines and garnering free promotion. You're fired.

The reaction to Golfweek's choice of a swinging noose was met with extremely strong criticism yesterday with nearly unanimous opinion that their decision was in poor taste. 24 hours later, the editor Dave Seanor was fired.

President of Turnstile Publishing -- name says it all doesn't it? -- offered this statement.

“We apologize for creating this graphic cover that received extreme negative reaction from consumers, subscribers and advertisers across the country. We were trying to convey the controversial issue with a strong and provocative graphic image. It is now obvious that the overall reaction to our cover deeply offended many people. For that, we are deeply apologetic.”

Allow me to interpret:

"We fully supported Seanor's decision for a very dramatic image on the cover because it was going to bring our fledgling magazine some income, but now that we've been forced to respond I'm going to throw the editor under the bus because I'd like to keep my job. Oh, and we apologize. Sort of."

Meanwhile, the lynching comment only got 2 weeks suspension. I need not repeat the reason why.

The Masters can't come soon enough for the PGA Tour.

Golfweek Fires Editor Over Noose Cover [NY Times]