It’s safe to say the National Press Club is not happy with Nexstar’s decision to partner with LIV Golf.
Founded in 1908, the National Press Club is the world’s leading professional organization for journalists. The Club has 3,000 members representing nearly every major news organization and is a leading voice for press freedom in the U.S. and worldwide.
On Friday, its president Jen Judson released a statement regarding LIV Golf’s multi-year TV deal to air its tournaments on The CW Network, which Nexstar Media Group owns.
The statement speaks for itself.
“We are deeply disappointed that a company that makes money from news like Nexstar would agree to participate in such a shameful PR stunt as LIV Golf, which is fundamentally designed to rehabilitate the Saudi reputation, tarnished irreparably by the state-ordered gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018. We are left to wonder what if anything Nexstar stands for. You cannot have a brand in news and act this way. Saudi Arabia murdered a Washington Post journalist and cut him up with a bone saw.
“Riyadh wants to use golf to get Americans to forget about murder. We must not let them get away with it. We call on Nexstar employees — many of whom are journalists — to demand management explain why they have partnered with the murderers of a journalist. We urge Nexstar to do the right thing and cancel their bloody golf show. And if they don’t drop the program here is what we can do: don’t watch it; and write each sponsor asking them not to sponsor.”
LIV’s 14-event sophomore season is slated to get underway next month in Mexico at Mayakoba.
