MMA Journalism Roundtable: MMA and Media Bias

Welcome to part 7 of a 10-part series on MMA journalism. Our guest opinions come courtesy of Jim Murphy of the Savage Science, Zak Woods of SB Nation and Watch Kalib Run and MMA Opinion’s very own Joshua Stein. Today we’ll be discussing media bias. Please leave your own thoughts in the comments section!

A lot of MMA websites sponsor fighters, and a lot of the writers have trained in high-profile gyms or know a lot of the fighters. In an industry where the majority of people write for love and not for profit, is it even possible to assure that there isn’t bias in the media?

Read Josh, Zak and Jim’s answer after the jump…and then leave your own comments!

Josh Stein:

There’s bias in every area of media, not just MMA. Anyone who says they don’t have bias is full of shit. It’s just that simple.

People who read what I write with any regulate know where my biases are, and I tell people up front that there are guys who I like and guys who I don’t. If people are honest about their biases, it’s not an issue. If people admit that they train with a guy, that they know a guy and they like him, then it’s not a big deal that they show favoritism. Of course, it can damage credibilty if we let that blind us. It can make us look really stupid. But it’s more about personal, intellectual honesty and honesty with the readers.

Zak Woods:

Online media is a new beast and no one is quite sure what the business model is going to look like. Many sites are trying to provide as many services as possible in order to generate revenue. Personally I am not ready to garner judgment on those that are pioneering business models with the new medium. But I will say that it is important to disclose any information that pertains to a potential bias.

Jim Murphy:

You should ask ESPN aka ‘the all poker network’ about this.  They do an awful job at compartmentalizing their responsibilities as a news organization and their promotional efforts.  Again, it’s situational.  If a media outlet only writes fawning articles about Dana White and the UFC and negative articles about Affliction and Strikeforce there’s an obvious bias.  On the specifics of sponsoring fighters, at least on my watch at SAVSCI we wouldn’t sponsor any fighter that wasn’t in our view a reflection of the sport at its best.  We’d want to back fighters that we’d be proud to have wear our ‘skully’ logo—if we do that, I’d have no problem singing their praises.

On a macro level, however, it’s no different than media bias in any other discipline.  I always get amused when someone gets worked up about a left wing bias on NPR or a right wing bias on Fox News—what they’re really upset about isn’t some lofty notion of journalistic integrity.  That’s just rationalization for taking issue with someone that doesn’t agree with them.  The reality is that every media outlet and every person who functions within it has some sort of bias.  It’s simply human nature. And at this point in our history it doesn’t matter.  If I don’t like how Fox News covers the President, I have hundreds if not thousands of different sources for news.  The MMA media is the same—while I may personally find a media outlet that does shoddy work or obviously favors one promotion or another distasteful but as a ‘fight sport media consumer’ I’ve got countless other options.

As far as the SAVSCI writing staff goes, I’d be disappointed if they *didn’t* have certain fighters that were their favorites.  We actually try to have fun with this at times—when we do play by play of live events we’ll make ‘disclaimers’ if a fighter we like is involved. It all comes down to understanding the sport—we try to convey our love for and knowledge of the sport.  If someone tells me ‘wow…I can tell you guys really know your stuff and that you really love fighting’ that would be a great compliment.  If it ever got to the point where writing about MMA or boxing or the other things we cover at SAVSCI became simply a ‘job’ I’d quit doing it.  We work hard to put out a good product and to cover the sport to the best of our ability—and part of that is simply because I personally and a number of my staff that I’ve discussed this with think that fight sports are the most fascinating field of human athletic endeavor.  To paraphrase Jim Lampley during one of the classic Morales/Barrera fights ‘There is no sport like prize fighting, and no other athletes quite like fighters’.  If I ever lost that feeling I’d look at changing careers.  It amazes me when I go to live events that so many big name MMA media types are walking around acting like it’s all such a chore.  I got a text from a friend at the Affliction: Banned show right before the main event—it said “Michael Buffer just introduced Megadeth playing ‘Holy Wars’ before Fedor comes out to fight.  Jim’s life is now complete’.

We work really hard, and try to do a good job.  Personally, I put in 14 hours a day most days and on busy weekends with fight cards in the US and Japan I may not sleep at all.  I’ve never worked as hard at a job, yet I’ve never had so much fun in my life.  If I ever lost that feeling, I’d do something else.

Readers: Please leave your thoughts in the comments.