By Alphonso Costello™
The regularly scheduled Sh-t List will not be seen today. I decided to take off my historian fedora in place of a flat-brim writer’s cap I acquired from the BWAA gift shop.
My following offering is meant to call out those that spew their self-serving bullshit without any accountability and raise your hand if you find yourself asking these very questions.
Why would a self-proclaimed journalist hug a member of a losing fighter’s entourage?
Why does any given website attack one promoter while protecting another?
Why do members of the media have the need to become the news instead of reporting it?
If I had a penny every time I asked myself these questions I would have enough money to fund my very own internet boxing talk show.
Also, have you noticed how investigative sports journalists break stories about corruption and wrong doings in other sports?
Yahoo Sports has broken many stories on players, coaches and student athletes violating NCAA rules. When the journalists covering baseball decided not to look the other way anymore they started their steroid witch hunts.
Scandals in tennis and soccer have been uncovered by muckraking journalists. Yet, in the dirtiest, most corrupt sport of them all, there hasn’t been a single ground breaking report that has brought to light some eye opening, jaw dropping scandal.
Think about it, corruption and illegal wrong doings occur in front of our very eyes. Sometimes the powers that be blatantly commit their corrupt misgivings in broad daylight for everyone to see. And yet, the boxing media refuses to ask questions and document all the wrongs that occur in this sport. The boxing media only seems to go after the bad guys when the promoters they are friendly with put a hit on one of their enemies and like good little soldiers these so-called journalists do the promoters’ dirty work.
Boxing has been a seedy business since its inception. Only the names have changed, everything else seems to have remained the same. Two men enter a ring to inflict pain and hurt on one another, risking their lives to entertain the public and provide for their families. All the while, they are used and abused by anyone that can attach themselves to the golden teet.
You have some boxing writers that complain about certain people always focusing on the negative aspects of the sport. They say they are above such negativity and would rather promote the positives. And that right there is the problem.
They would rather promote than report. They would rather present hyperbole instead of presenting the facts. If they focus on the negatives perhaps they would be able to improve the sport they claim to love and respect so much.
The mantra of “I want to promote the positives in the sport of boxing, not the negatives,” is quite convenient for members of the media that are on the take.
How about simply reporting the truth?
For example, you get those that call themselves journalists and beat the drums for investigative reporting on drugs, inept trainers or commission misgivings, but all they can churn out are 1,000 word press releases disguised as news stories.
Which brings us to Mr. Thomas Hauser. As many of you know Mr. Hauser recycled a months old rumor about Floyd Mayweather Jr. failing multiple drug tests. In my opinion, Mr. Hauser’s two-part “novella” was a hit job. His information sounded like gossip from none other than the grandstanding attention whore, Mr. Woodward and Bernstein of PEDs in Boxing, Gabe Montoya.
It says a lot when you need someone else to coherently write your life’s work for you. Seriously, if Mr. Montoya was as great as he thinks he is then why couldn’t he write that article himself, but say in 100,000 fewer words?
Why post his version of the story 160 characters at a time on Twitter or in some convoluted self-serving article? But in all fairness, it takes talent to churn out an epic piece like Mr. Hauser did.
Besides, Mr. Hauser isn’t the only one that has flushed integrity and ethics down the crapper.
These so-called writers worry more about winning some meaningless award named after some dead hack or purple dinosaur than performing the journalistic duties they pretend to do for a living.
At the same time, the most recognizable writer in the sport that works for the World Wide Leader is too busy making toe jokes, checking the water pressure in hotels or performing his promotional duties by informing his “Fight Freaks” where and when they can purchase tickets. And let’s not forget the most important one of them all, slaving away at the nearest media luncheon.
Ring Magazine’s Mr. Douglass Fischer recently wrote in one of his mailbags that he isn’t out and about looking to uncover the dirty deeds that occur in this sport. His job as an ethically-minded journalist is to simply cover the fights. I applaud Mr. Fischer for being honest and forthcoming. Continue churning out those wonderfully entertaining and hardcore mailbags, Dougie.
Most boxing writers tend to look the other way while promoters, managers and television networks feed them and allow them to sleep on their couches.
Everybody has an agenda. Everybody has to present their opinions in what should be a neutral and objective story.
A simple straight forward news report isn’t good enough anymore. Facts aren’t good enough. An opinion always has to be present in a writer’s news story because somebody always has an axe to grind or an ass to kiss.
Alphonso Costello™ is a member of The Sh-it List Makers Association of America (SMAA). You could also find his work at www.FightClubWriter.com. Send comments to theshitlist@fightclubwriter.co
Leave a Reply