People assume at times being in the media is easy.
That it is easy to do live TV, radio, print, interviews, blogs and etc. Sports media is a unique because it is the one profession everyone THINKS they can do. News media is a little different because everyone isn’t built to do a live report when riots are breaking out or go to war-torn countries, but sports media who wouldn’t want to do that?
For a long time, very similar to athletes, fans didn’t really have an outlet to voice their frustrations (or in many times jealousy) for those in sports media, but that all changed with the advent of social media.
It is not that much different from the very pretty girl in say Iowa, who now has a BIG national audience because of her thirst traps on Instagram. Sports media people from all over have become mini-celebrities in their own right. Some have become more celebrities than journalists. They have sacrificed some of their journalistic integrity, for the almighty dollar and vice of celebrity. For me, I don’t begrudge them, when bills are being paid they don’t ask you how you got the money. If you can look at yourself in the mirror everyday and you are happy with yourself, that is all that matter.
If you are rapper, you can be the hottest on your block, but is that enough or will you have to make some changes to crossover into mainstream? When you are in sports media, you are a profession that is ultra competitive, filled with 1000s of people who want your spot and job. Because of that you have to make some tough decisions.
We are in the era of saying a hot take, is a hot take is the hottest take of all. When I was in college I was taught all the traditional ways of media (print, radio and TV), this was before the explosion of the internet and social media. But as I got older, I had to use non-traditional ways to force my way into the industry. I think it allows me to have a unique views of everything media.
What I saw in the lead up and then the week of the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight concerns me. One of the traditional things that I was taught and still believe in, is that the MEDIA should never be the story. We are there to cover the stories, not become the story.
But, this was a situation almost from the beginning where the media became bigger than the actual fight itself. I predicted this but I had no idea it would get this big.
A little backstory, unlike many sports websites I make it a point to do on site coverage. That is another one of those traditional ways that was beat into my brain by professors at The Ohio State.
“A real journalist Robert is able to work out in the field, ask questions, paint a picture for their audience.”
Online media doesn’t have to be on site to cover anything, I can do everything from my couch. In my opinion, it is easy to pass judgments from home and never show your face. It is easy to talk about other members of media while never having to interact with them. While it isn’t as hard as it use to be to get credential as an independent online media outlet, it is still HARD. There is still a stigma when you are seen as blogger (being black is another issue, but that is a different convo). When you cover events live, you have to deal with a lot of egos, personalities and constantly having to prove yourself to people. That isn’t EASY, the easy thing (and frankly more profitable) to do for online outlets is to do nothing and just give their opinions from behind the scenes.
But, I never operated like that, if I have something to say, I want to be real easy to find. I also cover events for two other main reasons.
There aren’t enough minorities and women covering sports, I have said this for years and it is hard for strictly websites to get access. The best way to help those two things is to get out there and break the stereotypes the people who are giving out the access. I don’t NEED to be anywhere to write a good column, but I NEED to be there to help the person behind him have a little easier time.
The Mayweather-Pacquiao showed how media is flawed, but also evolving.
Someone asked me and they weren’t trying to be an asshole, but they were curious how I was one of the 100 journalists who was ringside of the fight. Did I have a hook up, who ass did I kiss, how was this possible especially when people (some very high-profile) were getting denied left and right (more on that in a second).
The answer to me was very simple, I didn’t just show up one day when Mayweather-Pacquiao was announced and say I wanted to cover boxing. I have been on the boxing beat for six years. I understand six years is a long time, so I don’t expect people to remember when I was taking buses and staying in Motel 6s to cover events, but the point was I put in a lot of work, just like we do for NBA, NFL, UFC and whatever else myself and staff want to do. All that money comes out of my pocket, I do Twitter Stories, so when events happened I can afford to give back to the people who have supported the site for a long time. I am not doing it to be on the Money Team, HBO, Showtime, Top Rank, I am only doing it for the people who support BSO because they put up with some of the fluff, because they know when something important is going down we are going to be there.
But, many of the media in Vegas, aren’t part of the boxing media. They wanted to be there because they are from big outlets and wanted to witness the biggest fight of all time. ESPN routinely sends 1-3 boxing writers to most big fights, they had like 250 people there. I get that it was a big fight, but there were TONS of REAL BOXING MEDIA who have worked hard for YEARS promoting the sport that was locked out of the fight because they aren’t big outlets.
If you aren’t in the media, you probably have no idea how credentialing for an event works. It is very much like a job application and a finite amount of spots. Only very few people are guaranteed sports, but boxing is very different from almost any other sport when it comes to their credentialing.
Take the NFL, if someone from ESPN is critical of Roger Goodell, they aren’t going to get denied for the Super Bowl because Goodell is annoyed. That just isn’t how big leagues work, so you are more free to speak your mind negative or positive and it rarely affects your ability to cover the sport.
Boxing and UFC to a smaller degree are run by very small amount of people, where personal grudges are held like hip-hop beefs.
Mayweather was in total control of the Mayweather-Pacquiao promotion, meaning if you were on their beef list, there was a high chance there would be an issue with access to the fight. Rachel Nichols asks tough questions, she asked Goodell, David Stern, Floyd Mayweather and others questions that made them visibly uncomfortable. I don’t think Nichols sees it as playing favorites, but just doing her job. When she was originally was denied arena access a week before the fight, I wish they would have figured out a solution at that time and as opposed to hours before the fight. Because it is boxing, this likely helped with the hype of the fight, but it just isn’t something that should be playing out in the public eye.
Denying Nichols, Michelle Beadle and others who have been critical of Mayweather however it went down, took a lot of focus off the fight and on the behind the scenes dirty laundry of media which was something that shouldn’t have happened. As journalists we shouldn’t feel like we have be on a side or we are going to get locked out of a event. I pride myself on being fair, I think sports like life have a lot of gray area. I try to tell both sides and let the audience make the decision. Early in my career, I decided I didn’t want to ever be friends with any athlete, any team, any particular network. This was a co-promotion with HBO & Showtime, I have worked with bother for years. They know don’t ask me to choose a side, I am going to put it all out there. My only relationship with Mayweather is from covering his fights, it is very easily for me to separate Mayweather in and out of the ring, that seems to be an issue for some in the media and that just spilled out over the last week.
The cynic in me think a lot of media, knew all this stuff about Mayweather for years, but saw an opportunity to exploit it for their personal gain during fight week and they rode that train like a porn star.
The non cynical part of me believes when you drop media into a place where they aren’t familiar covering is you get a lot of SHOCK pieces and people wondering why this information wasn’t out there before.
One problem with that, is that ALL THE INFO WAS OUT THERE, just not many cared until a week before the fight.
I’ll give you an example, Deadspin ran a piece that should a copy of a police report of Mayweather’s son detailing how Mayweather allegedly beat his mother. It is terrible and horrible to think someone would do that to the mother of their child, in their child’s presence. People across social media was SHOCKED at this, but that account from Mayweather’s son was reported by USA TODAY in 2014 and posted on several sites (BSO included) word for word.
Keith Olbermann called for a boycott, totally ignoring that Mayweather has fought four times since his serving his jail time. One writer even said “Mayweather should be behind bars” and had NO CLUE that Mayweather had behind bars for his crime.
I have no issue with media having STRONG opinions on any player, but just remember it is a slippery slope, because there are Mayweathers on EVERY TEAM, in EVERY SPORT and LEAGUE. If you aren’t consistent, I will continue to call you out on your hypocrisy.
I honestly felt bad for all the PR people involved in this promotion, because frankly from the beginning it has been about everything but the fight. The fight to me wasn’t anti-climatic as much as Mayweather just doing what he always does, which once again brought to light how many journalists really had no business being allowed to cover the fight because they had ZERO idea about how Mayweather fights. Their tweets and subsequent articles made it clear to me at least, that while many of them whined, bitched and moaned about the fight, their main goal was just to be AT THE FIGHT, not cover it.
The entitlement in media is at an all-time high where they care more about propping themselves up and less about doing their job. More important to get those Retweets, then actually getting the facts. One thing I try to be transparent, when I am doing things strictly because I know it is try drive page views, I will tell you, I will never insult your intelligence. Media are turning into the new IG MODELS. There are a lot of great media people, but this was not our shining moment.
Everyone has left Vegas and I’ll be on the way to Houston to cover Canelo-Kirkland. You know James Kirkland who has been in jail multiple times. Wonder if anyone will report on that like it was the first time they heard of it this week and call for boycott?