MMA Media Ethics: Are Reporters on The Take?

Some Thoughts from the Inside

I’ve followed with some interest the internal debate of a professional journalism society I used to be an active part of in olden times. It’s a group of MMA media members, some of whom you’ve definitely heard of and most of whom you certainly have not. Without violating any confidences, I think it’s safe to report they are dealing with an issue plaguing journalism generally these days—where are the lines, what constitutes unethical behavior and what, if anything, can a media member’s peers do to enforce industry standards?

The discussion was prompted by a former member’s acceptance of a $100 bill from UFC President Dana White, part of a bit where White shamed bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling for not immediately accepting an offer from the promotion to defend his title later this summer.

The details aren’t especially interesting and I don’t think anyone truly believes that $100 is an effective bribe. Instead, it’s the principle of the thing, where the chummy relationship with White and casual acceptance of his money presents, as the kids say, a “bad look.” There’s a slippery slope, in theory, between this behavior and accepting a hotel suite on the UFC’s dime (or a seat on a chartered flight to the Middle East).

I was editor-in-chief of my college newspaper, a Scroggins winner, and have been in-and-around the journalism game for most of my adult life. Like many of my peers, I’ve been fully indoctrinated and have a visceral, gut reaction to seeing journalists serve as a PR branch of the events and athletes they are supposedly reporting on. But I’m also a critical thinker—some might say provocateur or shit-stirrer—and I wonder what makes some behavior ethical while other, seemingly more profitable graft, exists completely in the realm of acceptability?

Here’s an example from my own life—I’ve sat in valuable floor seats at dozens of events over the years. Hundreds. The cumulative value of those tickets is in the six-figures, especially when you start factoring in what it would have cost to attend an event like Mayweather-McGregor where I was sitting (more than my mortgage payment for a year)! I’ve eaten finely catered meals, played Top Golf and received plenty of lucrative job opportunities based merely on my proximity to decision makers in combat sports.

This is all okay. This is the system working as intended. But what, honestly, is the grand distinction between providing a $1000 ticket to an event and providing a $1000 hotel room? Morally? Ethically? Practically? You can answer this for yourself, but the line seems especially fine to me.

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Dig a little beneath the surface and the picture somehow gets even murkier. For years, at SBNation and then Bleacher Report, I watched the fierce competition between outlets for ad campaigns targeted at UFC fans. Often this ad money came from a company UFC was doing business with and the promotion (allegedly) had a hand in deciding who received the largess.

Think about this for a second.

A journalist offered a hotel room by Dana White is, by most accounts, violating ethical standards. But a media outlet paying for a hotel room with money coming directly or indirectly from a fight promotion through ad money? That’s just capitalism baby!

Remember when MMA websites all started covering big boxing matches? It happened to coincide with giant banner ads sponsoring those sites the week of a fight. Now covering boxing is just part of the gig. No doubt a quite profitable one. This is okay ethically…for reasons. A journalist attending an event at the same promotion’s expense? Beyond the pale.

Ultimately, each journalist and the outlet they work for are responsible for policing their own behavior. I don’t have the answers here. And I’m not judging anyone. I was banned by UFC for aggressive reporting and opinion articles they didn’t care for. So if you want a sustained career in this game, my example is probably best used as a cautionary tale. It’s worth noting that some of the people concerned about “ethics” in MMA media had no interest in fighting the system to demand UFC reinstate journalists they had blackballed. These journalists did, in some cases, immediately call to check if my job was open.

Ethics and morality, you see, are situational.

Taking a $100 bill on camera seems like a bad call. But is it worse than writers at the dawn of the Zuffa revolution reporting on UFC by day for their home outlet while freelancing at night for UFC Magazine? Is it especially different than someone at multimedia conglomerate who works on UFC broadcasts produced and controlled by the promotion itself?

I don’t know. What I do know is this—there are very few clean hands in this game and almost no one whose paycheck is more than a couple of degrees removed from a fight promoter. We’re all part of the same system, the same machine, selling the same events to the same public. It is, as a wise man once observed, what it is. We’re all just part of the show.