E:60 banned from the UFC

Dave Meltzer is reporting that the UFC has banned E:60 from being credentialed at UFC events. E:60

After the piece they did a few months ago, Dana White banned ESPN's E:60 from being credentialed at UFC 100. The show was looking at doing three more UFC-related stories, a feature on Evan Tanner, Quinton Jackson and to do an updated feature on Brock Lesnar. However there have been signs over the past week that White is softening his stance. 

Zach Arnold describes the situation as such, 

However, the UFC hissy fit is significantly more laughable. The E:60 piece on Dana White and his tirade against Loretta Hunt was about as neutered as you could possibly get. There was no hardball on it at all and White did not come off horribly after the show aired. The fact that White held a grudge over a tame, harmless E:60 story is not simply a display of hardball tactics; it's a display of Vince McMahon-style penny-wise, pound-foolish media paranoia.    

WKR reviewed the E:60 piece and this was our conclusion, 

The profile didn't offer an answer to its principle question "is the UFC ready for prime time with White at the helm?" For it to be a hatchet piece E:60 and Tom Farrey would of needed to answer that question. In the end they left it up to the viewer to decide and that's a good thing.    

This action by White and the UFC is petty and small minded. On top of that it fuels the perception that the UFC is becoming some monolithic empire that really has no concern other than controlling their brand and image.Here we have the largest sports network wanting access to do profiles on your fighters and you are not going to credential them? I thought the goal here was to make UFC fighters into the next big sports celebrities?

Let me fill everyone in on a trade secret. There is nothing more satisfying than writing "we attempted to reach blank for comment but they declined to comment." It's almost a tacit admission of wrong doing. 

Besides, there is another saying, "keep your friends close but your enemies closer." Maybe having the E:60 guys around the UFC can help you influence the story in a positive way as oppose to letting them do it by themselves. White does know that just because he banned them doesn't mean that they can't still do stories about the UFC or your fighters and this almost encourages them to be more critical.