San Francisco Chronicle refuses to cover MMA and UFC and UFC President bashes em

The problem I always faced with local MMA was that it didn't really feel like something where a gamer would be appealing, but I thought there were some decent feature stories out of it. But I hated running feature stories knowing that there was no chance in hell I'd get results to run if I wasn't there myself.

 

It seems that Dana White is now fighting with the internet.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/27/tech/web/ufc-anonymous-sopa/index.html

That article, dated the 27/01, hints that White may have had second thoughts given what happened. He hasn't. He was still arguing with the hackers as of last weekend.

From Dave Meltzer's daily update this past Saturday...

http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/96-wwe/23965-sat-update-flair-scores-major-deal-rock-box-office-dana-vs-hackers-rumble-surprises

 

Talking of MMA, this piece by Ben Fowlkes is a really nice piece of writing.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/ben_fowlkes/03/15/gary-goodridge-cte/index.html

 

how about Dana White bashing a reporter saying that whatever he told him was off the record. and the reporter then wrote a article with a bunch of quotes of White and White got so mad about it and said the guy was not a pro

 

Dana White has a very select group of outlets that he likes and he gives them most of the day-to-day stuff. He absolutely hates several "big-time" reporters, like Josh Gross of ESPN and Loretta Hunt of Sherdog.

I love MMA. I'm a fan and I actually train a little bit. But I would hate to try and cover it full-time with a guy like that as the front man.

 

Is this different from anybody else in any other sport though? Truly? Everyone has their faves and go-to reporters. And there are figures that won't talk to certain outlets/reporters.

 

Never had an issue getting any info from the UFC.

 

Not a lot of executives in the Big Four who take to the Internet to call the reporter a fucking bitch if she writes something they don't like.

 

You're doing the former a big disservice there by lumping him in with the latter. Gross is a reporter who has paid his dues. Hunt, ask those who worked with her for any of the several outlets at which she's done her damage then been asked to take her act elsewhere, places which include Sherdog, Fight Network, Yahoo, and CBSSports.com, what they think.

 

The choice of language is a different concept than feeding stories to certain outlets, which I contend is commonplace.

 

Granted, I've never worked with or even met Loretta or Josh. My only point was that they both work for large media outlets (Sherdog is a go-to for MMA fans) that can't even get credentialed for fights.

I agree that there are always going to be some reporters that are favored by the brass and some that are given the cold shoulder. But I can't think of a reporter from a major entity covering a sport that has been denied a credential for a game, especially for a sport that is trying is best to grow.

 

It is, as is the lack of credentialing of certain reporters just because the commissioner doesn't like them, even if they're repping ESPN or SI.

Loretta has more than paid her dues as well. She was covering MMA well before it was hip.

And she's stuck with it even after enduring abuse that would make most of the hard-boiled dudes on this board cry or change careers.

She still has a lot of friends in the business, and she conducts herself as professionally as the most experienced mainstream-sports reporter. No whiny punk from Sherdog (not that they're all whiny punks) can change that.

And in any case -- she never even worked for Yahoo or CBS! Fight Network basically fell apart, and Sherdog has its own issues.