Golf fans in the United States are accustomed to televised golf tournaments being produced by either CBS, which has several decades of experience producing television productions of golf tournaments, or Golf Channel, which is a 24-hour cable channel devoted to golf (except when NBC can't find another channel to air NHL ice hockey playoff games on) that is owned by NBC's parent company, Comcast, and produces NBC's golf telecasts. Both CBS and Golf Channel are known for high-quality productions of golf tournaments.
However, the broadcast rights for the United States Golf Association (USGA) national golf championships, including the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open, are currently held by Fox, which doesn't have a lot of experience covering golf tournaments (they've held the USGA broadcast contract since 2015) and only airs a few golf tournaments per year on Fox and its co-owned cable sports channel FS1. Fox's golf tournament coverage tends to have a lot more glitches and broadcasting mishaps than golf tournament broadcasts produced by either CBS or Golf Channel.
However, during FS1 coverage of the second round of this year's U.S. Open golf championship, something that was not an ordinary technical glitch occurred, and it involved violent commentary about women.
As professional golfer Patrick "Captain America" Reed was about to hit his second shot on the first hole at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in New York state, the audio of Joe Buck's play-by-play commentary was replaced for approximately 22 seconds by commentary of two unidentified men who were having a discussion about violent sexual intercourse. When Buck's audio was restored, he continued his golf commentary as if nothing had happened (I'm not sure if Buck was aware of his commentary being interrupted as the interruption was occurring). At the time, coverage of the U.S. Open was airing on FS1.
Fox claimed in a press release that the incident was a result of on-course microphones picking up "offensive crowd chatter", and, given that some, but not all, golf fans can be obnoxious people who are willing to say offensive things out loud, that's certainly a plausible explanation. If that's the case, then the USGA should do more to ensure that people aren't allowed to say offensive things while they are spectators at their golf championships. However, it seemed to me like the glitch could have been caused by a couple of people who were responsible for the television production of the U.S. Open (presumably Fox broadcast technicians) engaging in a discussion about violent sex while there were in a production trailer or somewhere else where television production staff is permitted to be at during the golf tournament, and that audio of the discussion was inadvertently broadcast and mixed with audio of ambient crowd noise. If that's the case, then Fox should fire the people who were engaging in the offensive commentary about women as well as whoever allowed such discussion to be broadcast during a golf tournament.
However, the broadcast rights for the United States Golf Association (USGA) national golf championships, including the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open, are currently held by Fox, which doesn't have a lot of experience covering golf tournaments (they've held the USGA broadcast contract since 2015) and only airs a few golf tournaments per year on Fox and its co-owned cable sports channel FS1. Fox's golf tournament coverage tends to have a lot more glitches and broadcasting mishaps than golf tournament broadcasts produced by either CBS or Golf Channel.
However, during FS1 coverage of the second round of this year's U.S. Open golf championship, something that was not an ordinary technical glitch occurred, and it involved violent commentary about women.
As professional golfer Patrick "Captain America" Reed was about to hit his second shot on the first hole at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in New York state, the audio of Joe Buck's play-by-play commentary was replaced for approximately 22 seconds by commentary of two unidentified men who were having a discussion about violent sexual intercourse. When Buck's audio was restored, he continued his golf commentary as if nothing had happened (I'm not sure if Buck was aware of his commentary being interrupted as the interruption was occurring). At the time, coverage of the U.S. Open was airing on FS1.
Fox claimed in a press release that the incident was a result of on-course microphones picking up "offensive crowd chatter", and, given that some, but not all, golf fans can be obnoxious people who are willing to say offensive things out loud, that's certainly a plausible explanation. If that's the case, then the USGA should do more to ensure that people aren't allowed to say offensive things while they are spectators at their golf championships. However, it seemed to me like the glitch could have been caused by a couple of people who were responsible for the television production of the U.S. Open (presumably Fox broadcast technicians) engaging in a discussion about violent sex while there were in a production trailer or somewhere else where television production staff is permitted to be at during the golf tournament, and that audio of the discussion was inadvertently broadcast and mixed with audio of ambient crowd noise. If that's the case, then Fox should fire the people who were engaging in the offensive commentary about women as well as whoever allowed such discussion to be broadcast during a golf tournament.
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