As expected, CBS Sports has been put on official notice through a letter that the gaze of more than 7 million women represented by the National Council of Women's Organizations has been turned on the network in the battle over Augusta National's exclusive membership. What those 7 million women are watching doesn't count in the Neilsen ratings.

As expected, CBS Sports president Sean McManus brushed off NCWO chair Martha Burk's cease-and-desist order and said the network will televise the Masters Tournament for the 47th year and "to not do so would be a disservice." He stopped short of saying CBS Sports would rehire misogynist Ben Wright out of television exile to fill the extra four minutes per hour vacated by the sponsors.

As expected, the Augusta National Golf Club and recovering chairman Johnson had no comment. When the club's season begins in mid-October, no women are expected to be joining Lou Holtz and Bill Gates at the new-member orientation seminar.

So here we are, fully three months into this public debate, and the rhetoric shows no signs of slacking. Waging a conventional war against an unconventional opponent, Burk says it will not end until every member and supporter of Augusta National and the Masters is put on official notice, just as CBS was Thursday and sponsors Coca-Cola, IBM and CitiGroup the month before.

"I want to stress it's positive, non-coercive, not threatening," Burk said of her contacts with the sponsors and CBS. "What we say is, you have corporate codes of conduct against discrimination and in some cases against underwriting or contributing to organizations that discriminate. So we will appeal to their corporate code of conduct."

Despite McManus' public response, Burk says CBS isn't through with the issue with just a simple statement. Burk, however, doesn't understand the relationship between the network and the club, one in which CBS tip-toes so gingerly that it still hasn't brought back commentator Gary McCord eight years since his infamous "bikini wax" comment got him black-listed in 1994.

"I think they might reconsider, actually," Burk said of CBS. "They've been very, very close-mouthed. I wouldn't be surprised if they're not already looking into the financial - and possibly even - the legal implications of doing this without sponsorship. The airwaves are publicly owned, and networks, as a condition of their (FCC) license, are required to act in the public interest. There is a question in my mind (whether) broadcasting something that comes from an entity that is now emblematic of sex discrimination is acting in the public interest."

As former CBS Sports president Neal Pilson pointed out recently, the next two Summer Olympics will be conducted in countries - Greece and China - with histories of human rights violations, but nobody is suggesting NBC should drop coverage of those events.

For better or worse, the telecast will go on in 2003. But so will the debate. Burk promises "Action Alerts" will keep going up on the organization's Web site periodically between now and April, citing CEOs flaunting club memberships that fly in the face of corporate policies and at least one active congressman who might offend half of his constituents when his club membership becomes an issue in his re-election campaign.

And when, as expected, the action leads to pickets and protesters at the gate on Washington Road in April, it will be interesting to see how the journalists at CBS handle the coverage.

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.