Dana White's Rant Reveals his True Beliefs about the Media?
by Zak Woods on Dec 29, 2009 2:00 PM EST
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Dana White's invidious opinion of Jake Rossen is sure to receive a hefty amount of play for a variety of reasons but whether or not White's latest dust up with Sherdog smacks of unprofessionalism doesn't really concern WKR. What we are interested in is what White's comments tell us about his perception of the press and what Dana believes their purpose is.
First let's look at the key statements said by White.
"So, instead of, wait, instead of, instead of promoting the fight this weekend-- instead of promoting the fight this weekend, this guy is f***ing arguing with me about how big MMA is going to be in the next ten years and why it wont be as big as I say it is. Are you mother f***ers into Mixed Martial Arts!?
...
"You know there's a fight this Saturday, right? There's not, there's not one stitch of f***ing anything covering the fight"
As a promoter Dana White's job is to sell a fight and part of that entails the selling the story of the fight to the media. In this case, make the media believe that this story is A. important/relevant and B. worthy of a large investment of resources. Clearly that is what White is doing, much like a coach in basketball "massaging" a referee for a favorable call down the road.
Where things get dicey is White's choice of the word "promote." An independent news agency, for any sport, is not in the business of "promoting" they are in the business of reporting. Promotion implies fealty and servitude to the agency that is putting on the event. In this case White comments smack of a Lord demanding his vassal fulfill the terms of his service and work for him. In other words Dana is demanding that Sherdog not disagree with his opinions but rather they should spend their time promoting UFC 108.
Thus, it is possible to conclude that Dana White doesn't see the MMA Media as an independent fourth estate but rather as a tool to serve his company as just another form of a UFC commercial. There is nothing shocking about this idea, many organizations have made similar conclusions and the responsibility falls upon the editors within the media to ensure their credibility by not being taken advantage of in order to serve the means of an outside institution.
Of course, this could just be a clever way of building attention for the injury-cursed UFC 108. Controversy is usually a great way to get media attention.
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You know Dana he can not settle for any opionion other then his own, he takes it personal when you don’t agree with him. His job is to make the UFC grow into the biggest sport, Jake Rossen’s job is to give his opinion.
If Journalists, writers and Bloggers did not give their opinions then how would the sport grow or gain attention?
Josh Gross on Twitter
“Dana White has always pushed media for more and more positive UFC coverage. That’s fine. Doesn’t mean we have to pretend he’s our ombudsman.”
Narcisist aka: Alberto Martinez, owner of URDirt.com.
i think regardless of everyone’s opinion of the article, dana, or rossen, the point is Dana’s comment. It appears he is under the assumption people are only allowed to write positive things about the UFC or they have to talk about the fights. He is shocked Rossen is writing about his comments. I do not get why it is surprising why a MMA writer is writing about something the president of the largest MMA promotion said. Sounds like covering the sport to me.
because i am sure no writes about what Goodell talks about
"That's an Awfully Big Mustache"-Frank Drebin
watchkalibrun.com
Kevin Iole
Thinks that the Media’s job is to promote all things UFC.
He just usually does so from the Gimp cage in Dana White’s basement.
" Tell me something Steve, How does a guy from Puerto Rico loose a ball in the Sun? "
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