At the UFC 108 pre-fight press conference yesterday, Dana White spoke to Cage Writer's Steve Cofield about his recent verbal attack against Sherdog's Jake Rossen. In the above clip the discussion focused more on macro issues facing media coverage of MMA and the UFC.

After listening to Dana White's argument it is clear that his philosophical belief for the role of media encompasses the concept of adulatory coverage. In other words, the "promotion" of events. This was put forth in a crass manner by White himself when he said, "So if you are not here to f***ing build it [MMA] then get the f*** out of the way! Get out of my way. Get out of my way."

As a quick aside a reader presented a similar argument to me earlier this week; that the growth of MMA and the UFC indirectly benefits me and as a result I should do whatever is in my power to help the sport grow. On the surface this seems a completely reasonable and innocuous argument however, upon digging deeper it is apparent that this is a dangerous position, as the media sacrifices independence and purpose, i.e., reporting of independent information, for the sake of economic gain. 

Astute media observers will point to the financial reporting in the middle, and late 00's as an example of where the media followed its financial incentive connected to the source of their coverage as oppose to acting as an independent check and balance or a "fourth estate". The failure of real reporting on the dangerous risks within the over-leveraged financial sector helped propagate the sudden collapse of the global financial system, which almost threw the global economy into a second great depression. One of the reasons why the financial press failed was that they were "promoting" the new financial devices, which were the source of great wealth at the time, though in reality they were  extremely risky and toxic, causing the collapse of the financial system. 

But this is sports, a form of entertainment, surely there is a difference in moral and ethical imperative of reporting on the financial sector then in covering Mixed Martial Arts. True, but there is a similar example in sports media-- baseball and steroids.

In the late 90's baseball was still reeling from the negative effects of the strike and when Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire began their historic home run race baseball media members enthusiastically embraced the story. In fact the long ball as a whole served to rejuvenate interest in baseball and the media members who had access to the club houses with needles, back acne, bloated offensive numbers, and twenty pounds of muscle built in the off-season, turned a blind eye. In essence the media helped to promote the steroids status quo of the 90's and early 00's. After all, it was in their financial interest for baseball to make a comeback.

Fast forward ten years and what has happened to baseball? The home run record has been broken by a suspected steroids user, the faith of the fans has been torn asunder, pessimism is everywhere and baseball players are assumed to be juicing unless proven innocent. If the baseball writers had to do it all over again would they have turned their eyes downwards for the sake of brief increase in fan interest?

Sadly this is an example of one of the greatest failures of sports media coverage and should serve as a warning to those who claim that the MMA media should promote what indirectly benefits their financial stake.

That is why it is not the job of the MMA media to "promote" the sport as Dana White and his acolytes demand. Our job is to cover the sport, which entails a myriad of devices such as op-eds like the one Jake Rossen wrote.

Sadly there is another failing of White's that the above video illustrates.

Dana makes repeated references to the "Internet" as some all powerful conglomerate with an anti-UFC agenda. Unfortunately White is making the same mistake that old media hounds, like Buzz Bissinger, have made: an inability to differentiate between online sources of information and community members. Listening to White speak it is almost as if he believes that online forum participants, and commentators on blogs are the driving force behind MMA media narratives. This couldn't be further from the truth and anyone who has grown up surfing the web can easily differentiate between the online conversation and online journalism.