In a recent television interview UFC president, Dana White, made his negative feelings known about internet media sources. White claimed that he would never credential such organizations.

White's comments were a throwback to blog vs. mainstream arguments of 2006 but it is now 2009 and much has changed. In 2006 print media, what Dana White referred to as ‘real media', was not looking death in the face as they are now.

In 2009 the hard reality of the information revolution has dawned upon print media and like any good evolutionary system the more fit to survive live and replicate. For print media their obituary has been written and rewritten for quite some time now, and it will most likely continue to be rewritten. Their rigidity, arrogance and poor business model were ill equipped to handle the speed and immediacy of the web. While members of the print media may bemoan their decision to feature online content for free, that decision wasn't the one that crippled the industry. Their autopsy will confirm that the real cause of death was the invention of free online wanted listings, such as craiglist.com, not free articles online. Such listings for newspapers made up over 60% of their revenue.

While the history of print media is close to becoming academic, Dana  White's comment about new media were troubling on several levels.

The first is easily the most obvious, such ‘real media' doesn't care about MMA or the UFC. It is simply a novelty that kids and young people like, merely a spectacle that only warrants coverage when someone dies tragically or goes on a misogynistic rant. This is unfortunate but the reality of our times and accepting that reality is key to changing the situation. The UFC has expnded into new markets and is more popular then ever before. Yet there hasn't been a renaissance of print media coverage to match the growth of the sport.

What coverage print media does bestow upon the UFC usually entails a color piece about attending the event, a pre-fight interview with the local fighter, and a quick recap of the event somewhere in the sports section. Not exactly a vibrant reporting to match the diversity and strength of the community.

For truly interesting, independent and continuous MMA news and analysis fans must take to the web. And since most MMA and UFC fans are young the internet is where they already go for news and information.

This is where the most disturbing fact of White's comments comes into play. The UFC is a young spectators sport. Print media is largely targeted at an older audience. Thus editors steer their coverage away from youth niche sports towards the familiar for the sixty-five and over crowd. The UFC has always touted their dominance in the youth demographic, but when it comes to media covering their event White's comments seem counter intuitive if not counter productive.

White's defensive response was predictable, after all the negative reaction was a result of White's own actions in the process of producing internet content. While White may claim he was simply defending himself and his organization from slanderous attacks, such a defense does not hold up when White's actions were more slanderous and offensive then the article he was responding to.

The harsh reality is that there are only several traditional reporters following the UFC. However, these writers are not print based, but are in fact attached to internet sport sites such as, Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports, Sam Caplan of CBS Sportsline and Dave Meltzer of Yahoo Sports. I don't see anyone covering the UFC from the Washington Post or New York Times. The fact is that most MMA reporting is already internet based.

The UFC has the right to offer credentials to what organizations they see fit and should exercise that right accordingly. But to simply disqualify quality organizations due to their presence on the web is ridiculous. Especially when one considers the reality of who is provided credentials at a UFC event. At UFC 77 I received credentials for the Xavier University Newswire, not exactly an organization that fits into Dana White's definition of ‘real media'. I went to the press conference on Thursday and saw a paltry ten reporters, three of which asked any substantive questions. At the event itself I sat next to a writer who knew nothing about MMA or the UFC, and was there to simply write a color piece about the atmosphere. The post-fight press conference featured about twenty reporters, and White barked at them for questions after a few minutes, much like he did at UFC 96.

Dana White has often claimed that his goal is to make the UFC and MMA a global sport. Where fighters rival the popularity of Kobe Bryant,  LeBron James and Tiger Woods. Yet, in the simple act of allowing internet media coverage, the very future of the media industry, White is more content to stay in mid-90's stagnation, a sad fact for all MMA fans.