Shane Carwin & MMA Media Entitlement

via mmacity.com

By now, I'm sure you all have noticed the little Snowden/Carwin spat going on all over the interwebz. I wanted to write a piece about this whole situation. You guys should already know how I feel about all the "BE" boys(Snowden, Uncle Luke, etc.). So, I'm going to try to "let that sleeping dog lie", and just stick to the real issue here. How much is the MMA media entitled to?

I want to address the issue of what the media is entitled to, in terms of direct access to the fighters/promoters and information(salaries, gossip, etc.).In my opinion the MMA media is not entitled to anything. The sport is the "dog", and the media is the "tail". You guys seem to forget who's "wagging" who. The sport of MMA has survived and thrived for the vast majority of it's history without mainstream media backing (barely any media at all, actually).The sport didn't and still doesn't need writers like Snowden, Iole, or Meltzer to provide hype for it. On the contrary, the media tried to bury this sport only a few years ago, only to have it rise from the ashes through the sheer willpower(and a little money) of Dana White, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, Nobuyuki Sakakibara, and most importantly, a (relatively) small, though loyal legion of fans around the globe, who kept the sports pulse going mostly through word-of-mouth. This great sport is a self-made success story, and you should feel honored to be a part it.

This sport was around (in various forms) before any of us got here, it will be here(in some form) when we leave. If you want to cover this sport because you have a genuine passion for following it, then, great. But, how dare you attack a fighter who holds a full-time job as an engineer, has a family to watch over, is a volunteer wrestling coach for a local Division-I university, and along with all that, also happens to be training for the biggest fight of his life against BROCKLESNAR for the UFC Heavyweight Championship, for refusing to pander to your every beck and call.  I, for one, applaud this man for choosing to fulfill his real life responsibilities. Instead of spending three months traveling around, answering the same obnoxious, ridiculous, and repetitive questions that all the wannabe "MMA know-it-alls"in the media continue to ask every fighter, before every fight.The fighters, above the media nad even the promoters are the "heart and soul" of this sport, and deserve more respect than what you're giving.

In conclusion, I want to make clear the intention of this write-up(if it wasn't clear already). My intention is not to say we don't want you to cover our sport and be a part of it. Just that we all, media and fans, need to know our place. We are spectators, this is real life for these fighters. The consequences of these decisions don't personally effect us either way. Therefore, some of us like to try to pressure fighters into sacrificing their non-MMA responsibilities, their real lives,  to appease our lust for access and information. These fighters put their lives on the line for our entertainment. Don't they deserve a little more reverence? 

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