NEW YORK -- The New York Times said Wednesday two sports columns about Augusta National Golf Club's men-only membership policy were killed because they failed to meet newsroom standards, not because they disagreed with the stance taken by the newspaper's editorial page.
Under executive editor Howell Raines, the Times has devoted extensive coverage to Augusta's refusal to accept women as members.
In addition to numerous news stories, the paper's editorial page has criticized the club, which holds the Masters tournament every year, and suggested that two-time defending champion Tiger Woods sit out in protest next April.
But in a memo sent to the staff Wednesday and made available to The Associated Press, managing editor Gerald Boyd said the issue was not the viewpoint of the columns, but their appropriateness and soundness.
"We were not concerned with which 'side' the writers were on," the memo said. "A well-reported, well-reasoned column can come down on any side, with our welcome.
"One of the columns focused centrally on disputing The Times's editorials about Augusta. Part of our strict separation between the news and editorial pages entails not attacking each other. Intramural quarreling of that kind is unseemly and self-absorbed," Boyd wrote.
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Dave Anderson said he was told his column about the editorial would not run because it contradicted the editorial page's position. He disagreed with the memo's rationale.
"I didn't consider what I wrote an attack on the editorial page, just a difference of opinion," he said.
Anderson, who has written previously against pressuring Augusta to admit women, said his column had argued that Woods shouldn't be expected to boycott the tournament.
"Tiger isn't involved in this thing and shouldn't be asked to be," said Anderson, who noted this was the first time his column has not appeared for this reason.
"I've always thought a newspaper should have various opinions. That's what the columns are for, and that's what the editorial page is for," Anderson said. "You should be certainly allowed to disagree with editorials. It makes for a better paper."
Boyd said the other spiked column, which Anderson said was written by Harvey Araton, "tried to draw a connection between the Augusta issue and the elimination of women's softball from the Olympics. The logic did not meet our standards. That would have been true regardless of which 'side' the writer had taken on Augusta."
Araton could not be reached for comment.
"We hope no member of our staff really needs this assurance that our news columns enforce no 'party line,"' Boyd said.
Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at the University of Texas in Austin, said ethics have always dictated that newspapers separate their newsroom and financial side of the business to ensure editorial independence. But within the newsroom the rules are less clear and newsroom managers often decide what's appropriate for opinion pieces.
Still, Jensen said doesn't understand the newspaper's decision.
"The American reading public, the world reading public is certainly capable of understanding that within large news organizations there will be people with different opinions," he said. "I don't think anyone thinks The New York Times speaks with one voice."
The Times for its part indicated in the memo it will continue to cover what it calls an "inescapable story." Anderson said he talked to Boyd earlier in the day and looked forward to writing columns on the issue.
"I'll be writing more about this for sure," he said, noting that the controversy over his column has attracted even more attention to the issue. "When these columns don't appear, they cause more commotion."
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