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Two credibility issues brewing in the MMA media
By Zach Arnold | May 4, 2009
I was told long ago by a copy editor that criticizing anyone by name in the media is a no-no, in that it only attracts heat and does nothing for you.
Then again, I’m not exactly afraid of drawing heat if I think there are legitimate questions to ask.
Luke Thomas at Bloody Elbow has long been a champion for UFC giving MMA blogs credentials to cover their events. I have been mostly on the fence on this issue, slightly leaning towards ‘no’ in regards to UFC giving out credentials to bloggers. For me, there are several reasons as to why I don’t think the MMA media deserves credentials and a lot of it has to do with some ethical questions in regards to the behavior of certain writers. Make no mistake about it — I am not here to paint the entire media sector with a broad brush and label everyone as completely unethical and lacking in integrity.
However, there are a lot of issues right now with the MMA media that really have caught my attention and I’m concerned about where things are heading. I wanted to highlight a couple of interesting situations that have been recently raised publicly that I think deserve some attention. I realize that a lot of MMA media outlets don’t like touching upon issues of credibility with others in the writing game, but I do think that it is fair game to highlight possible breaches of conduct when they take place.
At the end of this post, you will notice a few questions that I am asking here and I want to get your response to them based on the following two stories I am writing about here.
Penmanship
Approximately two weeks ago, I received an anonymous tip from someone claiming that they had found evidence that MMA Weekly writer Tom Hamlin was actually FC Fighter writer Steven Marrocco. The issue at hand here is whether or not the accusation was true or false and if it is true, did FC Fighter have any problems with this taking place?
The anonymous tipster claimed the following:
- The tipster said that if you listened to the voice on MMA Weekly video interviews of fighters and then compared it to the voice of Steven Marrocco on FC Fighter radio shows (access the archives here), it’s the same voice. Sample links: This MMA Weekly video interview and Marrocco’s last appearance on FC Fighter in February.
- On the MMA Weekly contact page, contact information for Tom Hamlin did not exist while contact information for the site’s other writers is there. For someone who has been writing updates and columns on the MMA Weekly site since May of 2007, you would think that he might be important enough to be listed…
- Articles appearing under the byline of Tom Hamlin have been appearing on the MMA Weekly site since May of 2007. If Marrocco was writing under the pen name of Tom Hamlin, it means that he has been writing for both MMA Weekly and FC Fighter for two years.
After we received the anonymous message, it was noticed that a similar message appeared on the MMA Weekly message board (containing similar evidence/claims). That message was shortly removed.
On the MMA Weekly site, articles using the bylines of both Steven Marrocco and Tom Hamlin are now appearing. Interestingly enough, a search for Steven Marrocco as the byline on MMA Weekly articles on the site’s archives shows that Marrocco’s name surfaced publicly right after UFC 97 (or when the anonymous tipster contacted us). Only one article (April 2007) previously appeared on the MMA Weekly site under the byline of Steve Marrocco.
We contacted both MMA Weekly management and also FC Fighter management for public comment on this story. We gave sufficient time to both parties to answer our inquiries and did not receive answers back from either party. This was a qualification for us to consider before even writing this post, as I did not want to blindside anyone before writing this post. Proverbially-speaking, I have no horse in this race. Ken Pishna is someone who has always been friendly to me (both in e-mail and on the site). Always treated me fairly. I personally don’t have a bad word to say about him.
Here is what we asked FC Fighter management in our inquiry:
- Were you contacted anonymously by someone who made the claim that Marrocco was Tom Hamlin?
- Did you contact MMA Weekly and ask them if this was true or false? If you did, what was the end result of this?
- If the second point happened, does FC Fighter allow its writers to work for multiple web sites or is content explicitly supposed to be exclusive?
Here is what we asked MMA Weekly management in our inquiry:
- Were you contacted anonymously by someone who made the claim that Marrocco was Tom Hamlin?
- Was the anonymous tipster’s claims true or false?
- What is MMA Weekly’s policy as far as background checks on writers and/or pen names? In other words, do you hire writers based on seeing them in person or what do you view is sufficient protocol to make sure that someone is on the up-and-up?
- Does MMA Weekly allow its writers to work for multiple publications/sites or does MMA Weekly want exclusive content only?
Who hires the writers at MMA Weekly?
If MMA Weekly got caught here on this situation (as an innocent bystander) and the claim that Marrocco and Hamlin are one-and-of-the-same, then why is Marrocco continuing to write for their site and why would articles continue to be posted under both names? Prior to the tipster’s allegations, there wasn’t content under the Marrocco byline on MMA Weekly — but did things change once FC Fighter staff found out what was happening here?
The next question to naturally ask: If Marrocco working for MMAWeekly was something that FC Fighter already knew and was no big deal, why is Marrocco’s name starting to appear after the anonymous tipster brought the issue up?
The twist — if FC Fighter was fine with Marrocco writing for both sites, then why the Tom Hamlin alias? Possible answer: FC Fighter was interested in exclusive content only. We know that FC Fighter pays their writers — therefore, if Marrocco was getting paid by both sites, was MMA Weekly sending him money under his name? Or is he getting paid by both outlets?
The story here: A writer possibly working for two web sites under two different names, and getting paid while one site potentially didn’t know that the other site was using a writer they hired. Double-dipping is the allegation from the anonymous tipster, in other words.
WAMMA bam, thank you ma’am
A second controversy that is erupting within the last couple of weeks has been the growing role of Sam Caplan as WAMMA boss (along with the growing role of bloggers within the WAMMA hierarchy). Caplan has been receiving heavy fire as of late because he was in Japan reportedly working on a co-promotional event involving WAMMA members. Additionally, Caplan and Five Ounces of Pain broke the news of Randy Couture’s divorce with Kim Couture. Caplan had stated that when he took over the position of being the boss in WAMMA, he would step away temporarily from his site.
Here is how Bloody Elbow characterized problems with Caplan’s recent behavior:
Do you see the problem here? A guy, in the middle of putting together a huge event involving multiple UFC competitors, is fanning the flames on the marital problems of one of the UFC’s biggest stars? And a Strikeforce fighter with whom WAMMA has a relationship? And no one is talking about WHY he’s writing this?
—
My problem is really with the fact that Caplan stated he was taking a leave of absence from the site when he got on board as COO of WAMMA less than two weeks ago. The fact that he’s reporting gossip from unnamed sources about whether or not the Coutures are living together is secondary.
The role of MMA bloggers in a sanctioning body (WAMMA) is certainly a worthwhile issue to discuss. It does pose the following questions that should be asked:
- Are people who consider themselves MMA bloggers really journalists? Are they really truly writers?
- How many people writing on the MMA scene actually consider it their primary source of income?
- Should the answer to the second question be a determining factor in regards to who gets credentialed or not credentialed by fight promotions?
- What kind of value would you place on the work that MMA writers do in comparison to the kind of broadsheet press that UFC desires to reach out to?
When you have isses regarding writers (un)questionably engaging in unethical behavior, it becomes that much harder to take the calls seriously that MMA web sites and media outlets should get credentialed at all by UFC. Conversely, there also should be a spotlight on the behavior of media outlets who do get credentialed by UFC and those outlets should have their behavior and standards measured by a fair litmus test.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 98 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I should also qualify that the comment above was not about BE specifically and shouldn’t be construed as such. I happen to enjoy the site for what it is and rarely read the comments anyway.
The anti-BE rhetoric is in full force and I just don’t see where it comes from. I discovered the site when I was coming to FO as my primary hub for mma news, and gradually it has become one of my go-to’s for mma news, commentary and analysis…a main reason was that Zach seemed to have wane on homegrown content after PRIDE started going down the tubes, the huge yakuza fallout controversy and finally the sale to UFC and its bitter results.
BE presents a lot of viewpoints – some which are critical of UFC and a lot that are not – and it provides excellent insight into other organizations that few other sites even care to talk about. I cannot recall a time that I ever saw a BE staffer act unprofessionally – but I do recall many times BE staffers taking part in insightful and spirited debates and allowing others to do the same, even if they expressed atypical or minority views. Unfortunately for people like 45 they don’t run a UFC propaganda site or bow to the altar of Dana White on command and most thankfully they don’t have much of an appetite for bigots to make idiotic arguements about the appropriateness of slurs like “niggers & faggots”.
Keep up the good work Luke, Brent and the gang and keep up the good work Zach. Glad to see that you’re churning out some more content – any radio shows in the future??
Ever since Zach had to stop with his FO Radio shows, we’ve invite Zach to our podcasts, but he’s always ‘too busy’…just kidding. 🙂
Annie
I have never wanted credentials simply to see a show for free. It’s absolutely a perk of doing the job that in covering a sport more completely I get to be immersed in the live experience and anyone who claims otherwise is lying.
I grew up as a boxing fan and my grandfather had all these Bert Sugar books/articles and it always amazed me the depth that he could cover something while conveying the excitement of seeing it. So besides the fact that covering the undercards in depth is important from a complete coverage perspective I do think a lot is lost by not getting that personal FEEL from being at the event.
So yeah, I personally get that out of being credentialed. It provides for more rich and deep content to come out of us.
I don’t understand how Bloody elbow became the whipping boy here? Why is everyone letting the other sites off the hook? (Dennis Green)
BE is what it is. A blog, you go to it for off the wall kind of opinions, bright shiny pictures and now rankings that combine other MMA media ranking to form some sort of mega rankings?? That USA today publishes?
Brent,
I agree that covering the undercard and being able to report on the “feel” of the event are important, but both of those could be done from a paid seat in the arena. How do Sherdog and others do it now? What I want to know is what else would a credential help you do? The UFC keeps a tight grip on the fighters in the locker room, so is there anything besides being able to ask questions at the post-fight press conference.
I’m not asking this to be combative, I’m really just curious. Would the MMA media landscape look that much different if blogs were credentialed or would be still see much of the same?
It’s simple: because no other MMA site acts like they do, not even Fightlinker or Cage Potato.
I don’t remember seeing Zach Arnold storm into other sites to battle commenters saying he sucked.
I don’t remember Jake Rosen wishing cancer on anybody.
I don’t remember Josh Gross writing about how the SI deal justifies him as a MMA figurehead.
I don’t remember Ivan Trembow furiously defending MMAWeekly rankings.
I don’t wish ill on them, I’m not “jealous” of them. I just have a problem with them having such a lack of dignity and class while trying to represent MMA. (insert Dana White incidents here.) I don’t think that’s good for anybody.
Better yet, I know BE people have been at an array of live events. What coverage have they provided in the past that would establish why they specifically deserve credentials? What interviews are there? What insight gained? What analysis from on site?
I totally understand what you’re getting at. And yeah, post fight coverage would be the same as with a paid ticket. But the access perspective (for things like pressers) is important. And that rolls directly into access not just during fight night but in the weeks leading up as well.
But to be honest, I personally don’t think the MMA media landscape would look appreciably different at all. All I can do is be honest on that one. Other than how quickly things are posted (i.e. live, detailed reports aren’t possible from the crowd) you can cover the fights live with a pen and notebook in the crowd and write it up when you get home.
And to be fair I’ll say the Bloody Elbow writers (outside of Luke Thomas) have been very respectable here, and I don’t think any criticism is going to them. It’s only to Luke’s kneejerk reactions to negative feedback and Kid Nate’s constantly embarrassing incidents. I’d fire that idiot if I was Luke and wanted respect. He’s more suited for Fightlinker writing.
“and sherdog has been getting weaker and weaker since Gross left and they let Brad McCray go in favor of fight network cast offs.”
Gross was great, but Brad McCray…really? Someone dig up that Jordan Breen interview where he drops shit like McCray didn’t even know who Josh Thompson was.
I just wanted to add that I like the meta-rankings.
“and sherdog has been getting weaker and weaker since Gross left and they let Brad McCray go in favor of fight network cast offs.”-see post #24
lol Ive seen seen a drop off for sherdog since Hunt and Knapp took over the site
Guess I’m in the minority as far as Brad McCray support goes. I just think sherdog has gotten weaker since Gross left no matter who they attempted to replace him with
Wow.
This really turned into a bash BE fest. I think they deserve a little heat for occasionally acting like self-important twats, but I still enjoy their site and enjoy being able to interact with the writers/bloggers.
Sure, I roll my eyes whenever they get into one of their journalist/blogger arguments, or bitch about credentialing, or start waving around their USA Today deal as proof of their internet cock size versus other blogs, but that stuff is more of an annoyance than a serious problem. Kid Nate deserves to take a flogging for his most recent outburst, but despite it’s warts, I enjoy reading Bloody Elbow for the most part.
BE is just like any other internet community. You have to learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff and ignore the crap you find annoying/redundant.
“I just wanted to add that I like the meta-rankings.”
I despise rankings in general, so I’ll be honest and admit that the meta-rankings are some of the ‘chaff’ that I just ignore when I am on Bloody Elbow. All rankings are good for is starting arguments on the internet. And everyone knows the adage about winning internet arguments.
Maybe that’s why none of this stuff bothers me. I don’t read any of the rankings articles or comments.
you mean Josh Thomson?
And Bloody Elbow gets grief because they’re so in-your-face and obnoxious about, well, everything. Crank the obnoxiousness down to about a 7 on a scale of 1-10 instead of an 11 and they might not catch so much flak.
The set-up Sherdog.com has is what a journalistic MMA Website should be. They have weekely columns. Play-By-Play action. Video Interviews. A Radio Station. And they keep the fans in their forums.
It is in the execution that they completely fail. More specifically, in who they hire to do the job. Breem is good. The rest, not so much. Over half of the radio content isn’t even about MMA. The video interviews are typically pointless. The anti-UFC bias takes away from their credibility.
Oh, and they also have the Fighter Finder which is a fantastic reference tool.
If good people were put in charge of that website, it would be the one stop source of MMA news and information.
I have been a freelance writer in the MMA scene for over two years now. I have come across some of the ethical BS that you bring up in your article. I feel that the UFC should issue credentials. However, I can also understand the UFC’s point of view.
When I covered the Affliction card it was absolutely ridiculous how many bloggers were there, most from CA. However, for the two weeks after the event, I couldn’t find any news on it outside of the mainstream media or the established bloggers. So my question was, why are all these writer here? As I looked at their credentials i saw that most of them were bloggers.
Blogging is how I got my start on the scene and I am thankful for all the opportunities that I was offered by the various MMA organizations, UFC was definittely not one of them.
I feel that DANA White sees the bloggers simply as parasites, sucking of his teat. In part I can’t blame him, from my point of view most of the writers lack the basic writing skills to make there observations mildly tolerable.
i think that there need to be a quota for web site tachieve in order to get their media credentials, say 100,000 readers.
Pro boxer dies in Texas as a result of injuries incurred in a fight last week:
http://www.northtexasfisticuffs.com/home/2009/5/5/benjamin-flores-passes-away.html
Original articles such as this keep me visiting this site over and over again. Great work, if anyone deserves media credentials, its Zach Arnold.
I’m not sure how I feel about the dual identities of Tom Hamlin/Steven Marroco. Who is he really, Tom or Steve? He had to have known that he would eventually get caught; especially if he is featured on an internet radio shows. Then again, with the feeble amount of money journalists are known to make, can you really blame him?
The conflict of interest that is apparent in Sam Caplan’s role as a blogger for fiveouncesofpain.com and his role as the WAMMA boss is a bigger problem, especially considering the UFC’s refusal to participate in WAMMA. Perhaps Sam is trying to establish his website as being on par to Ring Magazine is for boxing, and with their “Ring Magazine” champion being similar to the WAMMA championship.
Just a thought….
This is a very thought-provoking topic…nice job Zach. While I recognize that there is a difference between a blog and mainstream press, I truly believe MMA bloggers know just as much, if not more, than the current MMA journalists in the mainstream media. This in and of itself does not mean anything, but I have always looked at a site like Sherdog as more journalistic than not. Another question to ask is who is doing the credentialling. MMA organizations have a lot of ground to make up to even be considered in the same breath as major sports leagues. All of the existing MMA organizations are tightly controlled to maximize profit. The sporting nature of the sport of MMA is secondary to this, interestingly enough. Therefore, the idea of requiring true journalists is somewhat amusing. If MMA organizations are going to require professionalism on the part of those they credential, they better be extremely professional themselves. Unfortunately, I don’t see this happening in the near future.
Sam Caplan really needs to abandon his site. How is anything his site says going to be taken seriously again? Even if he stops writing anybody associated with the site is going to be constantly accused of showing pro-WAMMA bias. And as we saw from his days as Elite’s online mouthpiece, the man doesn’t know how to separate the site from his employer.
Concerning WAMMA…
Let’s not just bash 5 oz’s here… MMA Junkie has multiple voters for the rankings, and they have a good number of articles they promote WAMMA as well….
It’s MMA Junkie’s one minor pitful at this point.
Mark — In the same vein, BloodyElbow cannot distance itself from UWC where Luke “LOOK AT ME, CREDENTIAL ME, LOVE ME” Thomas provides commentary for.
They made an incredible attempt to make Chase Bebe look bad for skipping a low paying indy gig for a decent paying Japanese gig. Hell, it is on his wikipedia page. It happens all the time for smaller events and while it sucks, it is a part of the business. Let’s face it, a fight in DREAM could mean a future in that promotion, a fight in UWC is about as big of a deal as any other smaller promotion that nobody will see (I know, streamed on Sherdog, who cares?).
If only Sherdog could reach the level of unbiased thought that 45 Huddle has attained.
I got banned by BE, but I still think its one of the best MMA sites out there, if not the best. But the other posters on here are right: theres a huge spread of the quality of the writers and moderators. Some I think ought to be credentialed, others drag the site down. Unfortunately for BE, the latter mean that BE will never, ever be credentialed, not until their standards are raised. Unfortunately, Luke is one of the problems in that he doesn’t recognize where the standards need improving.
Thats really the issue with credentialing of blogs, in that there is so much variety in the quality and bias of the writers. Thats why MMAWeekly has gotten through, IMO: even though their rankings suck, they try and maintain an unbiased perspective in everything they write, and when people bash their rankings, they shut up and take it.
The guys over at Bloody Elbow (mainly Luke and Nate) need to learn when to shut up. You’re not the first site to get criticism but you may be the first site who has every god damn writer respond to that criticism.
Seriously every time someone bad mouths BE there’s Luke & Nate to the rescue to defend their honour. But every time they try they just end up looking like jackasses.
Never seen anything like it.
Oh and “Get Cancer” seriously. “Get cancer” what in the hell? Hopefully Nate learns from this, maybe he’ll keep his mouth shut from now on. I can’t believe he wrote and read back “Get cancer” and thought it was smart. Wishing death on people, real professional.
When I first heard Nate’s voice on a radio show a while back I thought he sounded like he had something wrong with him. Seriously is this the case? It might excuse some of his actions and remarks.
Either way best get him to zip it. Before he causes more damage.
I don’t really have a problem with freelancers writing for multiple publications or working under pen names.
Is this really a controversy?
I always wonder if “Thomas Rios” is a real name. If you see an unfamiliar writer on FCF writing “3-tap symphony”, maybe that’s him.
“I don’t agree with the idea that anyone is bullied around if not agreeing with us. Do spirited discussions happen? Yes, they do. Do we sometimes cross the line in our responses? Speaking for myself…yeah, it has happened. But one of the great lies about the site is that we delete comments to “win arguments” which I have never once seen.”
This is funny to me because just yesterday, Nate made a post titled “Robert Joyner is not my friend”, which contained the same info as in Steve’s link above. I gave Nate my honest opinion, that he was being an egomaniac and his complaints were silly. He responded by calling me an “asshole” and banning me for “pissing off the moderators”. I would link you back to his comments, but of course, the entire post and all my comments were deleted once he realized nobody was flocking to support his lunatic behavior.
“but if you want to be a dick with me
that’s fine
we both know i’m a bigger dick than you are
and i’ve got a bigger megaphone”
As someone who has read BE.com since the beginning and contributed in many different forms, I was stunned that Nate would imply he is willing to bury MMAPayout because of a perceived slight. I figured the people who run BE were above that. But just by giving my honest opinion, I was clumped in with the “enemies” of the site and barred from posting (along with Rob).
To bring this back to the subject at hand: should people who conduct themselves like this be credentialed for major events? I would say no, of course not. Anyone who treats their influence like a weapon doesn’t pass the basic test of integrity, journalistic or otherwise. But there are some bloggers who would do a great job if they were given additional access.
On the flip side, Mike Rome is right about the “mainstream” journalists who cover MMA. Sure, there are decent writers like Dave Meltzer and Mike Chiapetta going to UFC events. But people like Kevin Iole who are de facto members of the UFC marketing team are walking punchlines who have no credibility with real MMA fans. I mean, the guy writes a fluff fighter profile before EVERY Zuffa event, without fail. And lets not forget that Yahoo Sports is also the online PPV provider for the UFC, and advertises that in the same space as the news and editorials.
If you were to ask me who should be credentialed for these shows, and gave me a choice between automatons like Iole, and bloggers like Leland Roling who have a precise grasp of the sport but not a background in journalism or an established media outlet to associate with… I’m going with LR.
Tomas Rios is for sure a real guy. Thankfully he’s also lowered the amount of unsuitable grammatical devices in his preview articles.
Smoogy is good for the sport. Keep the gifs coming brotha!!
smoogy, I honestly wasn’t around yesterday to see if that happened. I guess I shouldn’t say that no one on the site does because I honestly can’t speak for everyone. Not that I’m saying Nate did, simply that I wasn’t around to see any of that. I personally have never deleted a comment that made it look like I was “losing an argument” unless it broke a rule.
This whole situation sucks. That’s really where I’m at right now.
I kinda feel bad for Brent here, as he is a legit good dude and you can tell doesn’t like this shit that went down. I know I speak for myself here, but there is no way to blame you. Not everything on BE is bad, there is stuff on there that is good.
Do I like who you and Rome associate yourselves with? Nah. But its a gig writing about something you like in a place that is pretty visible and has a connection with a (shitty, mind you) mainstream paper.
Zach, as a former journalist, I see the Marrocco/Hamlin situation like this: if both companies were cool with the idea of Marrocco writing for both, then there should be no worries. I can see why he’d take the assumed name of Hamlin for one of them.
That being said, I do see the possible conflict of interest and “double dipping” here. My feeling is that “Hamlin” was either not getting paid for his work, or was getting his money under the table. Both publications had to have known that Marrocco/Hamlin were one and the same.
But what is strange is: why one nor the other will not come right out and say that yes, it’s the same guy? Could it be that one or the other has been caught out? Would it be embarrassing in some way for this to be confirmed?
I have never read the work of either “person,” but that may have something to do with it? Do Marrocco and Hamlin write from the same point of view, or do they conflict? If they are the same man, is Hamlin an “alter ego,” or is he being paid to take a contrarian point of view?
My further thoughts go to your concern about MMA bloggers being real journalists; if Marrocco/Hamlin took jobs at competing newspapers (say, the NY Times & Daily News), there’s no way he could do it for long. His cover would be blown, and his credibility would be that of Jayson Blair’s.
Honestly, MMA writing is still in a growth stage. It is going to be a while before credentials can be appropriately assessed to those who write knowledgably about the sport (Dave Meltzer for one, and there are others). But not every single blogger who crawls out of the woodwork should immediately think he/she deserves a nice shiny pass. That comes from work, a body of it, and respect from your peers. That all takes time.
Now…the Caplan issue: here’s another conflict of interest. He’s supposedly on leave of absence from his site, doing promo work in Japan, and he is also airing the Couture’s dirty laundry in public? At the very least, he’s going back on his word, and that’s not very smart.
FCFighter did not know this was taking place while MMAWeekly did know Steve and Tom were one in the same according to people I’ve talked to about it, but no one is willing to go on the record about it.
As far as the blogs go, they should not be credentialed. They’re not real journalists.
I started to delineate all the reasons I think Luke Thomas, Sam Caplan and others are egomaniacal fools, but it’s pretty self-evident. the two or three comments a month I’d put up on BE aren’t worth arguing with the ban, or making another account, or putting up another link to them (tho I know I’m nobody in the greater scheme of things). But that’s not what this is about.
To Joe at #84, you’re wrong. Some are. The media you’re practicing journalism in is NOT what makes you a journalist. That’s like saying “People who write for small-town papers are not journalists” or “Sports writers are not journalists”. A solid understanding of ethics, standards, and methods are what makes you a journalist, along with experience, curiosity, and an incisive mind. No one needs to ask permission to engage in journalism, but they do have to practice it in a way that meets an ethical standard.
Zach should accept people writing under different names, since there’s no doubt at one time he definitely read the Apter mags.
Garth, I didn’t say they weren’t journalist because they worked for blogs. I said they aren’t journalists, period, or least ones that practice journalistic ethics and maintain journalistic integrity. The majority of them literally take someone else’s news and re-write it with their name in the by-line. Most of them couldn’t write a grocery list, and definitely fail in producing anything worth reading.
Name me a blogger you consider a journalist and I tell you why they’re not.
You mean to tell me that all those MMA writers who do video interviews with fighters are not, in the immortal words of Bobby Heenan, “broadcast journalists?” 🙂 Blasphemous!
“Anyone who treats their influence like a weapon doesn’t pass the basic test of integrity, journalistic or otherwise.”
I love this quote. I am hereby compelled to appropriate it .
🙂
like I said in #24 way too many so called MMA news sites out there just copy and pasting it up
Most couuldn’t write a 5 word sentance if you spotted them 4.
MMApayout is lame IMO.
Tony: harsh!
I do’tn now wat ur talken about tho.
i’m confused how this turned into a BE bashfest…a lot of mma sites take themselves way too seriously and think copying and pasting is what real journalists do. i’m not a journalist…just a blogger with a passion to share my opinion about the sport i love.
…weird how things got so personal and now i know there’s no love between mma sites… 🙁
hey robthom
get clams,sir!!!
that’s right…i’m wishing shellfish upon you….
Garrison: Because Zach is talking about credentialing and Bloody Elbow are the poster children for that argument. Secondly, because half of the staff came into the comments section to defend their e-honor.
So he’s going under his real name now at weekly.
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=8723&zoneid=13
While BE/sherdog/et al might not be a fabled island of new online journalism worthy of press passes being handed out to them like candy I read them for more opinions and viewpoints into the MMA world. They each offer a perspective on news occurring on the scene that interests me. Now, if the opinion gets too self-righteous a la Kid Nate I’ll not consider it worth my time pretty quickly, but having more viewpoints coming from a similar interest in the sport is rarely a bad thing.
Credentials are a bit of a situation in the way they’re given and utilized though. As a sport MMA needs all the coverage it can receive from those competent enough to write about it. Unfortunately such efficacy and competence is lacking both on- and off-line in all sorts of ways. That shouldn’t mean that the public access to information on these events should suffer for it by necessity though, nor that credentials are an inalienable right for anyone with $5 for a catchy website name and a computer with an internet connection.
I love seeing a fan’s/critic’s/journalist’s point of view from events and how they mesh, as long as we always get those perspectives in as many forms as we can without negatively effecting the quality I’ll be happy. The balance must simply be reached to attain the maximum benefit for the fans and the organizations when it comes to the coverage – and that does exclude having the place so cluttered with semi-coherent ‘press’ that no seats are available for the event itself. Finding that balance between the press on both sides and the organizational hierarchy can be a tricky situation though at times.
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