A Feigned Outcry Across the Pacific
By Josh Stein on Dec 18, 2008
In Rupert Murdoch’s home nation of Australia, the media seems to be lost to the very concept, that central axiom on which FOX News was founded. “Fair and balanced,” it seems, the Australian media is not, at least with respect to MMA.
Whether you are Australian or not, there is something to be said for misrepresentation. When an article claims to present an accurate representation of MMA (or at least implies the idea by virtue of claiming journalistic credibility) and inserts a clip of the infamous, even and especially in MMA circles, Rio Heroes organization to make a point, they are not simply mischaracterizing a sport, they are lying.
They interrupt their lone example in support of Aussie legalization of the sport with a clip clearly handpicked to display gore the likes of which sanctioned MMA has not seen since being absorbed into the major bodies. Of course, the semantic difference between mixed martial arts and cage fighting allows them to post a clip from an organization where they fight in cages but do not engage in the practice of mixing martial arts as much as gouging eyes.
Then, of course, there is the wonderful ignorant quotation from an Australian Medical Association official:
“You’d have to say because of the serious risk of head injury with combat sports such as cage fighting, no it shouldn’t be legal.”
Well, sure. If you want to look at it that way, the severe risk of head injuries in boxing and football (both of which supersede the inherent risk in MMA) then we’d have to ban those outright too. Even the potential for a severe head injury in BMX would be worth taking a note of, if we were talking about banning biking.
Now, as an American MMA fan, this issue doesn’t seriously affect me. This discussion of a ban of the sport on the basis of irrational outrage and imaginary medical risks is disgusting, to be sure, but it raises the question of whether or not I should even bother caring about the affairs of another country.
My friend, Jeremy, sent me this article, and asked me to say something, but just because a friend asks you to say something doesn’t make it significant, at least not by itself.
What makes this so worthy of contempt is not the sheer stupidity, not the lies or the ill concealed bias. It’s the notion that people are trying to censor the sport just because they don’t like it. There are no arguments for why it should band based in medical facts, at least not that don’t require wrapping young soccer players in pillows to keep them from accidentally bumping into each other.
This is an issue of people wanting to ban a sport they don’t like, and it becomes an issue of freedom of speech and freedom of enterprise. This is not the exportation of an American value, but rather the inculcation of a human value, this idea that was so well phrased in the only halfway decent sentence in the entire piece, spoken by Sports Minister Kevin Greene:
“As individuals and as a community we don’t have to participate in or support these sports – we don’t even have to like them. But they’re here to stay and on that basis its important for the Government to set some rules.”
This is about regulation of a sport to make it safe for the athletes, to be sure, but it’s also about protecting the right of great Australian athletes to pursue their careers and their passions.
Perhaps that sounds ideological, but if having ideals makes me an ideologue, then I’ll wear the brand happily. Still, if you care about this, if you want these people to stop printing fiction as if it were fact, then write them an email, post a comment, or just take a moment to click “yes” on the poll over legalization.
It’s one thing when a blogger that nobody reads writes something and is readily and appropriately mocked. It’s a different thing altogether when media outlets, well respected as their names have become, are spewing this ignorance.
Filed Under: MMA in Media • Opinion
Comments (5)
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Most every medical association on the planet supports the elimination of boxing, just so you know. Acting as if they don’t because its inconvenient to the point you’re putting out there doesn’t make it so.
Additionally, in the case of Australian MMA, I’d have a tough time swallowing it too given how the sport has been treated. The biggest Aussie MMA star was Tony Bonello, a guy who it is assumed has won mostly thrown fights, and his signature wins are against Dan Severn (see prior statement) and an old and ricidulously undersized kickboxer/boxer John Wayne Parr, a fight which was probably illegal.
I know how medical associations feel about boxing. (I also know how they feel about football, but that’s an entirely different conversation) The point is that with the elimination of the standing 8 count, MMA is far safer. To claim that MMA should be eliminated for medical reasons, while boxing continues to be sanctioned, is completely absurd. That was the point.
It’s giving with the left hand, but taking with the right:
The oxygen deprivation involved in mountain hiking’s dangerous over the long term. Soccer players have legs like someone who owed the mafia money after their retirement, cyclists have horrendous accidents all the time & football players are encouraged to be bigger, stronger, faster & run into another guy at full pace without protection all the time (just see how many kids get injured playing it every week, not even going to start with the drugged-up adults who can push through the pain)- yet mixed martial arts (that’s right, not cage fighting) is horrible? Is it just me that sees the ridiculousness in all of this? I’d rather not bash boxing, because I’m a fan of that too, but the point is we have consenting, well-trained & prepared competitors (not hateful opponents), who pass all appropriate medical checks & compete in a sport they enjoy, no different to soccer, rugby, boxing or any olympic event.
I’m not going to bother going into how incredibly subjective & sensationalised FOX is, or how the AMA will approve many dangerous toxins, under the pretense of “vaccinations” or “medicine”, but I will say that if you are going to allow such “mainstream” sports to continue despite the known risks, I see no reason as to the abolition of Mixed Martial Arts.
I know how medical associations feel about boxing. (I also know how they feel about football, but that’s an entirely different conversation) The point is that with the elimination of the standing 8 count, MMA is far safer. To claim that MMA should be eliminated for medical reasons, while boxing continues to be sanctioned, is completely absurd. That was the point.
How is it absurd? They want both banned for the same reasons. MMA and training for MMA inargurably causes the same sort of brain injuries, though to a lesser degree. They can’t do anything about boxing in spite of the medical community pushing for its banshment now for a 7th decade. This is a bit like saying that because the American Lung Association pushed hard for the elimination of smoking it makes a potential interest in eliminating dirty car exaust absurd.
I’m not talking about the Medical associations. The medical associations want both removed. The writers just want to get rid of MMA.
The Medical association is consistent, and while I disagree with the Medical association, that’s not my argument. It’s the writers that are being inconsistent.
If you’re going to talk about what the Medical Association wants to ban, make sure you add that they want to ban boxing. It seems important, at least to me, that that they have a hard line stance against any striking based combat sport.