Yes, MMA Media, You Can Call Dana White A Liar
or Soledad O'Brien And Jay Rosen Say It's The Duty Of The Media To Call Out Lies
A while ago, I tweeted out something to the effect that MMA media should not be the mouthpiece for UFC president Dana White when they all know he is looking them in the eyes and straight up spewing lies. I got some pushback on that, especially from people who were on hand for this specific scrum with White. I don't remember specifically what White said, but I do remember it came after a Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series card. The main point those who reported on White's comments was that they were just there to communicate (read: transcribe) what he said and that they were not there to judge the veracity of White's comments. That didn't sit well with me. It still does not sit well.
I was reminded of all this a few weeks ago while listening to an episode of the "Reveal"podcast, "Commander-in-tweet." During that episode, Soledad O'Brien spoke about the media's obligation to call out liars.
O'Brien was talking about Donald Trump's tweets, but what she said is just as applicable when it comes to White.
"I think the media has not figured out how not to be used," O'Brien said. "The bosses have really decided that they're going to chase everything. That's a decision that comes from above."
That's undoubtedly true in MMA. If it weren't true, we wouldn't get so many, "Dana White Says…" stories every time he opens his mouth.
"And so you see reporters quoting Trump even when they know full well that he's lying," O'Brien continued. "That this quote is absolutely objectively false. It is a lie that they will quote. They would quote, 'President Trump says the moon is made of cheese,' and will feel perfectly fine, 'yes, the president said that.'
"My argument would be, if you know it's a lie. If you know this thing to be untrue and you're elevating it as a truthful statement, there's something very wrong. Your job is journalism and I think that's a big part of the problem."
Jay Rosen, a media critic, writer and professor of journalism at New York University, was also on the podcast. His words on Trump also rang true for White.
"It's really amazing, Soledad, that this statement is true," Rosen said. "The most potent force for misinforming the public is the president of the United States."
O'Brien's solution for journalists reporting on lies is a simple one. Journalists need to supply context. In other words, simply state what the truth is inside the story.
"The president inaccurately stated today, in a press conference, that the moon is made of cheese, when scientists have said for the last X number of years that it is not," O'Brien offered as an example of how to report on a liar.
I'm not one to not practice what I preach, so allow me to provide some context on the latest lie by omission that White burped out to Hawaii's KHON2.
White was in Hawaii to attend Trinity Sport Combat's "Trinity Kings 8" fight card for an episode of "Dana White: Lookin' For a Fight." In a question he had to know he would face, White was asked when the UFC is going to come to Hawaii.
"(UFC featherweight champion) Max (Holloway) wants it bad," White said. "Listen, we want to come here. We love this place. We got the get this thing figured out eventually. We'll see. We'll see what happens. I want it, does the tourism board want it? Do they or do they not? If they do, we'll come. If not, we understand."
That seems like an innocuous enough reply. It almost sounds believable. Hey, the UFC would love to have a fight card in Hawaii, if only the pesky tourism board would say yes, the UFC would deliver for the fans. The thing is, White's reply leaves out a small fact that is worth about $6 million.
In April 2018, Hawaii News Now reported on the possibility of a UFC fight card in Hawaii. In that story, the Hawaii Tourism Board (HTA) told reporter Ian Scheuring that the UFC and the HTA spoke about a possible card at Aloha Stadium on August 4, 2018. The breaking point of those talks came when the UFC held out its hand and asked the HTA to fill that greedy paw with $6 million. That's when the HTA offered a counterproposal.
The HTA had two good reasons to attempt to bargain with the UFC request. The first reason was that the HTA budget for the year was $5.8 million. The second reason was that the HTA paid the NFL a fee of $1 million for the Pro Bowl.
"They called the NFL and asked what we paid for the Pro Bowl. I think they said, 'If the Pro Bowl got that, we should get this,'" said HTA vice president Leslie Dance. "We offered (a counterproposal) and they took a couple weeks and said, 'No thank you, we're going to pass.'"
The 2018 NFL Pro Bowl earned a rating of 5.3 and 8.6 million (with a peak of 10.1 million) viewers across ESPN and ABC. The highest-rated UFC on ESPN event, UFC on ESPN 1 averaged 1.463 million viewers, while the lowest-rated UFC on ESPN card averaged 680,000. If you added up the average ratings for all five UFC on ESPN cards, they barely crack 5 million viewers.
As for economic impact, the 2017 Pro Bowl was expected to deliver an economic impact of $60 million for Hawaii.
So, why would the HTA give the UFC $5 million more than it gave the NFL? That's not a good investment.
White leaving that part out of his narrative is a nice trick. It takes the onus off him and the very profitable company he represents and puts it on the HTA. It's cute, it gets White's sycophants mad at the HTA and makes him look like he's trying his best to get a UFC event in Hawaii and would if only the HTA would say yes.
See, showing how White lied wasn't hard.
So, MMA media, If you know White is lying, call him a liar. You might get blocked on Twitter. You might lose your credentials, but you will be able to look yourself in the eye and say, yes, I am a journalist and not a transcriber.
Reading Time: “A Boy of Unusual Vision”
This story by Alice Steinbach from “The Baltimore Sun” won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.
“Calvin Stanley is a fourth-grader at Cross Country Elementary School. He rides a bike, watches TV, plays video games and does just about everything other 10-year-old boys do. Except see.”
http://reprints.longform.org/a-boy-of-unusual-vision-alice-steinbach
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