No conflicts should mean no conflicts
Last year Josh Gross, the editor of sherdog.com, called me and asked me to write an article about the UFC's lawsuit against the IFL. He also asked me, in a very serious tone, whether I still managed any fighters. I told him I did not, and had not for a number of years. Josh clearly wanted to be sure I had no conflict of interest before I wrote again for the site.
Apparently, I should have asked Josh whether he and sherdog.com had any conflicts of interest, since Luke Thomas from bloodyknuckle.com noticed something last night:
del.icio.us tags: sherdog media whaledog
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Apparently, I should have asked Josh whether he and sherdog.com had any conflicts of interest, since Luke Thomas from bloodyknuckle.com noticed something last night:
I watched last night's Battleground (a much-improved program) only to realize Sherdog.com, an ostensibly independent news source for all things MMA, pays money to one particular MMA organization advertising money. In other words, Sherdog is a client of the IFL.If sherdog.com is going to present itself as a serious news source and grill its writers about potential conflicts of interest, the least it could do is avoid those conflicts itself.
How is this accomplished? Easily: the Sherdog logo and website URL are printed in one corner of the ring's canvas. Alongside Sherdog's logo are the logos for Headblade and Buffalo Wild Wings; not exactly news sources the last time I checked.
. . .
So then how can they justify their relationship with the IFL? I don't know the terms of their deal and I can't say up front I've noticed any biased reporting by Sherdog on all things IFL. Then again, we also haven't seen a great number of pieces highly critical of the IFL, something that is common from other news sources or blogs.
del.icio.us tags: sherdog media whaledog
Honestly, I don't really see the problem. UFC has had commercials on sherdog radio and bodog and ifl has commercials on their forums. And they have sponsored Buentello for a fight too (as I am sure you know).
BUT writers could very well be biased if they have strings to promotors or fighters. I do believe Gross has said numerous times that nor does he (or any other writer for the site) have anything to do with sales/commercials etc. So I guess he is very careful whenever he's bringing in freelancers.
Posted by Emil | 7/04/2007 4:12 PM
There's a big difference between a promotion spending money to advertise on a website or radio program and a website spending money to advertise on a promotion's shows. (And I don't think fighter sponsorship is neccessarily equivalent. Though it too can be a ethically questionable choice.)
Posted by KennyP | 7/05/2007 7:55 AM
I don't know Josh Gross personally but from the things I have heard him say in the past I am guessing that he feels the same way you do about this and would stay away from such relationships if it were up to him. I am purely speculating but I think the business side over there (Crave Online, etc) may have out-voted Gross. Or perhaps he wasn't involved in the decision at all.
Posted by The FightWorks Podcast | 7/06/2007 8:37 AM
They've discussed this issue several times on the Sherdog radio show, and Gross has made it very clear that he does not think that Sherdog should sponsor any fighter or organization. They even had one of the IFL guys on (forget which of them, sorry) who commented on the Sherdog logo, which Gross clearly was not happy with.
Posted by John | 7/24/2007 5:25 AM