CBS' PROTEST STANCE HITS ROUGH.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH Media

Here's how logic can work in the TV world:

CBS, which wholeheartedly supports Bonnie Bernstein's journalistic duty to hit Kansas coach Roy Williams with the ``had-to-ask-it'' question moments after his team lost the NCAA basketball title, told any writer wanting to interview its on-air talent at the Masters this week that he or she can do so only if the questions relate to golf coverage.

There's a word for that. Hypocritical?

How 'bout the expletive the curse-conscious Williams uttered into Bernstein's live microphone Monday night when she asked not once but twice about his interest in the North Carolina job?

That's what it'll be if the network decides to ignore anything relating to the Hootie Johnson-Martha Burk overblown controversy that'll surely be sensationalized by every other media outlet given a credential to gather news in Augusta, Ga., when protests are scheduled to begin Saturday.

For what it's worth, Johnson told writers and TV folk at Wednesday's media gathering: ``I don't think this is going to be a major issue.'' He added he did not tell the network to avoid covering the controversy or Burk's protest, saying, ``We haven't any had discussions or made any demands. That will be their call.''

Sure it will.

The 48-year weighted relationship CBS has with the grand Masters is the longest-running annual sporting event with one network. Yet, it only took 47 years of renewing year-to-year contracts before Augusta National Golf Club even allowed CBS to move in enough cameras to cover all 18 holes during the final round.

CBS knows who runs the show, even if it pays the rights fees. And Johnson doesn't have to say anything to the network, which he actually helped by making this year's version commercial-free so sponsors wouldn't have to face the moral wrath of Burk and the National Council of Women's Organizations.

The thing about it is, Saturday's protest outside the gates by the NCWO and similar song-and-dance demonstrations by the Ku Klux Klan and Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition are scheduled to take place before CBS even goes on the air. If there's no real fear the tournament will be interrupted, why should CBS worry about it?

Because without even some kind of brief mention, it perpetuates the perception the network is ignorant, irresponsible, has little-to-no input over what it puts onto its own airwaves and cowardly hides from any prestige- or income-affected controversy.

Just ask Gary McCord, eight years removed from broadcasting at Augusta, about that one. Or better yet, maybe someone will hire him this weekend to report on the protests.

It won't be CBS, which will stick to ``a tradition unlike any other.''

--The Enberg way: Assigned to his fourth Masters with CBS to do video essays from Butler Cabin, Dick Enberg clearly admits he has no desire to venture out beyond the azaleas to find a topic this weekend.

``The story will be if Tiger Woods can win his third Masters or if Phil Mickelson can get the monkey off his back or a relative unknown wins,'' Enberg said Thursday morning from Augusta National, after arriving to find out the first round had been postponed because of rain.

``For most of the golfers and the fans coming here to see the Masters, the outside events will have news coverage. It's not as if we're all sticking our heads into the muddy environment, but it's a story best handled by someone else.''

Especially not him. If the 68-year-old Enberg has an opinion on women's membership at Augusta or even wanted to report on it this weekend, it's not in his makeup to grab a mike and start pontificating.

``Actually, I don't think I fit in as well in today's journalistic core as some,'' he said. ``My friends will tell you I'm never good with conflict. I'd rather find things positive and pleasing, and that's journalistic, too. Critics may call me sappy, but you do get to a point where you don't need to apologize for not doing more interrogating or investigating.

``I'm getting too old for that. I'm glad that job isn't mine.''

--Coverage elsewhere: Since it has no rights-fee ties to the Masters, The Golf Channel has shown it might be the best one-stop TV source for both on- and off-course events this week.

It aired Johnson's news conference Wednesday. It aired Burk's news conference Thursday. It has a two-hour lead-in and three-hour post-coverage show every day during the Masters. It even has a reporter there, Adam Barr, just to cover this story.

Bob Greenway, the channel's senior vice president of programming and production, said Thursday he considers it ``an obligation to cover anything pertinent to golf, whether it's Martha Burk or Casey Martin. Not for the sake of sensationalism, but for an extended service to the viewers. And we try to present all sides fairly.''

Though CBS might have more to lose if the Masters ever pulled the plug on the network, Greenway said his channel might have a greater risk in its coverage should Johnson and his group disagree with how it presents the matter.

``Sure, we don't have live rights fees, but we have library rights to all the Masters events and they've given us a lot of access,'' Greenway said. ``In theory, we have a different risk. CBS or any other network can live without golf. We can't. We can't be cavalier about our coverage of this.''

Barr, meanwhile, writes on The Golf Channel's Web site (thegolfchannel.com) why he thinks this women's membership issue should be covered in a sports context.

``What we will see, for better or worse, is how the game of golf comes out of this in the eye of the public. ... Whatever happens this week will stick to golf's reputation like glue,'' Barr wrote. ``The national mind doesn't parse things out in detail. If things go badly in Augusta, golf will look bad, no matter who is to blame.''

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By Tom Hoffarth