THE PROPHET'S THURSDAY TAPOUT: WHY I HATE THE MEDIA EDITION

by The Prophet, The Savage Science

When my last CD was out, you wasn't bumpin me
But now that I got this little company
Everybody wanna come to me like it was some disease
But you won't get a crumb from me
Cause I'm from the streets of (Compton, Compton)
I told em all - all them little gangstas
Who you think helped mold 'em all?
Now you wanna run around talkin bout guns like I ain't got none
What you think I sold 'em all?
Cause I stay well off
Now all I get is hate mail all day sayin Dre fell off
What cause I been in the lab wit a pen and a pad tryin to get this damn label off?

I'll be back on a regular schedule with my Thursday Tapouts before long. Like my man Dr. Dre I've "been in the lab wit a pen and a pad trying to get this damn label off" or more specifically in front of my computer trying to get the MMA Deathstar known as THE SAVAGE SCIENCE up to its full potency. In some ways I envy Darth Vader, the bossman of the original DeathStar. Not so much for when Luke took his helmet off and there he was lookin' like Uncle Fester from "The Adams Family". I'm talking about in the first movie where he's trying to find Princess Leia and he chokes out that Rebel captain. He does it later to one of his own supplicants who dares to question his authority. That's what I envy, but we'll get back to this in just a moment. Since much of this week's column focuses on the Japanese MMA scene we'll go with a picture of one of that country's best imports...

Anyway, back to the Darth Vader thing--the biggest pain in the ass is trying to get everyone to do what they're supposed to do. I don't ask for much--I just want my supplicants to produce and produce on schedule. I've tried being nice, I've tried being harsh and its still a bitch getting anything done. I'm huge in the fightsport journalism community--to make a comparison to something all of you people know about (no, not the competitive tractor pull circuit) I'm like Jay-Z or Frank Sinatra in the fightsport journalism community. Still, I'm not above the law and I just can't run around choking out supplicants that disappoint me. I wish I could roll like my man Darth Vader.....here he is takin' care of business in the first Star Wars movie. Geeks, I know its *really* 'Episode IV' but it was the first one to come out way back in the day before George Lucas became batshit crazy:



That's the way to manage employees. Still, Vader wasn't a guy to rest on his laurels. He would later develop his choke out skills to an even greater extent as this footage demonstrates:



Now THAT is badass...he's not in the same room with the dude, not even in the same area code most likely and he chokes the mofo out with his psychic bad-assedry. It's like he has a GPS on it or something as there's not any hesitation whatsoever, like there would be if he had to figure out where the dude was--he just takes unruly control of the situation. That's the kind of power that I need.

Making matters worse, the mainstream sports media is really chapping my ass at the moment....we'll talk about that in our next section:

THE MAINSTREAM SPORTS MEDIA IS REALLY CHAPPING MY ASS:

Actually, that's not really true--I'm not *mad* at them or anything, I'm more incredulous at their sanctimonious stupidity. Every time something like this happens I'm reminded of Bob Costas' "You bloggers suck" tirade awhile back. If you don't remember this there's definitely something about it on the site. Basically, Costas went on a Biggie-on-Tupac type dis-fest, calling bloggers weak ass G's who couldn't carry his jock. He went on to brag about all of the bitches he's turned out and all of the paper he's holdin'. In other words, Bobby C impugned the credibility of the sports blogging community relative to his compatriots in what I nominally call "mainstream" sports media.

That notion of "credibility" is at the forefront of my current gripe. This does require a bit of backstory. As most of you are probably aware by now, the EliteXC MMA promotion signed a deal with CBS a while back. This was significant in that they were the first fight sport promotion of any type with a regularly scheduled major network prime time TV deal since "The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports". They're airing the first EliteXC show on 5/31 featuring YouTube street fighter turned MMA rock star Kimbo Slice and the comely Gina Carano (whom I understand has recently become engaged to the proprietor of this website) and its received a lot of coverage not only in the fight sports media but in mainstream advertising and broadcasting type outlets.

While the deal was put together by CBS President and CEO Les Moonves, it didn't make Executive Chairman Sumner Redstone very happy. I'm not at all buying that Redstone has ever seen *mixed martial arts* any more than he's seen an erection since the Eisenhower Administration. That didn't stop the Montgomery Burns-like Redstone from taking Moonves to task for bringing MMA to CBS. That's neither here nor there, but my gripe began when the President of Fox Sports removed his lips from Redstone's backside long enough to utter the following:

But Ed Goren, president of Fox Sports, was more direct, telling an audience of 200 that he didn’t pursue a relationship with ultimate fighting because, “We don’t need money that badly.”

For the network that brought us "Cops" and "When Animals Attack" to suggest that they've got "standards" is bad enough. If ut pulled ratings numbers and advertisers they'd be airing live donkey shows from Tiujana. But here's where my problem begins--Fox Sports has aired a *ton* of MMA over the past few years. The FoxSportsNet (FSN) network has aired PRIDE highlight shows hosted by Jay Glazer for a number of years. They've also aired the IFL and, in fact, they've got an IFL show on FSN today (at least here in the Pacific Northwest). I still stand by my original speculation that none of the big MMA groups are returning Fox's phone calls at the moment, but regardless of what you think or don't think about MMA for Goren to suggest that Fox is taking the moral high ground is completely disingenuous and sanctimonious. This statement is as absurd as Hugh Hefner sanctimoniously suggesting that his magazine doesn't publish nude women. My guess is that he was trying to butt smack the powerful Redstone and was willing to say anything to curry favor.

In addition, Fox Sports website has a *ton* of MMA coverage much the same way that virtually every other mainstream sports site has tried to hop on the bandwagon. What really pisses me off is what a bad job they do with it. Here's the latest example--at the first of the week the Japanese MMA promotion DREAM announced that Nick Diaz would be fighting on their May 11th show. The following day, EliteXC president Gary Shaw--who holds Diaz's US contract--put the kibosh on the fight. This had become well known throughout the MMA world, but on Wednesday FoxSports posted a story about Diaz fighting on the DREAM card. In other words, they posted a story that had already become outdated as by that point Diaz had been *off* of the Japanese show for over a day. 24 hours later--or 3 days after Diaz had been pulled from the show--they finally reported this fact. That story was accurate for a few hours, since late yesterday DREAM and EliteXC worked out a deal to allow Diaz to fight. So Diaz is now back *ON* the DREAM.3 show and has been for over 24 hours now, yet Fox Sports is still reporting that he's off the event.

Granted, this is a sport I know a lot about and stay on top of breaking news in. What disturbs me is that if they do such shoddy work about MMA who's to say that they don't do equally shoddy work for every other sport with a lower profile than the MLB? I don't blame Fox Sports or anyone else for jumping on the bandwagon--that's what TV networks do whether its with poker, reality shows or in this case MMA. But if they are going to cover the sport they need to at least take it seriously. Actually, I don't care if they take it seriously since they clearly don't but at least get your facts straight.

I've got extensive coverage of this over at The Savage Science if you want to check it out:

Fox Sports bigwig's sanctimonious statement @ THE SAVAGE SCIENCE

DREAM.3 LIVE COVERAGE THIS SUNDAY MORNING/LATE SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE SAVAGE SCIENCE:

We'll have live coverage of DREAM.3 direct from Tokyo this Sunday morning...actually, its more like late late Saturday night since those Japanese apparently have a different time zone and everything. Don't miss the best live fight narrative in the business--we'll get underway at 3 AM Eastern Time and 12 Midnight Pacific. Click the link below or the banner below to check it out:

DREAM.3 LIVE COVERAGE AT THE SAVAGE SCIENCE



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Until next time--remember the best way to avoid trouble is to NOT try to retrieve sports memorabilia at gunpoint...