[Le Tigre]

I am completely serious in wondering, how people get the job of writing articles for Sherdog?

I have been reading this site for well over a year at this point (participating on the boards is/was a recent idea). I first came to this site simply for the news. I never read any of the articles, but of course I eventually started reading the articles as well. I would have thought before reading my first article that this site would have writers that were fans of MMA first and not as biased as the people who post on the boards. But I couldn't have been more wrong.

The two main writers (main by they seem to post much more frequently than anyone else) being Sloan and Rossen. These two are clearly biased fans. Sloan always spends more time discussing UFC than PRIDE. He'll spend the same amount of space discussing the recent TUF win and a PRIDE PPV. It is ridiculous. His preference is clear and maybe he should just report on that. On top of that, he gives many apparent jabs at PRIDE during his recaps. If he is going to go into a PPV not liking them already then he'll not like the PPV no matter what happens unless Dana White comes flying in and slaps Zuffa stickers over everything.

As for Rossen, his bias is not as up front as Sloan's at times. He tries to hide his prejudice, but then there are the blatant statements that he lets go which prompted this thread. "That Kimbo Slice bare-knuckle fight in a boatyard seemed more organized than anything PRIDE or K-1 has overseen" - this is a direct quote from his writing today. I literally don't understand how a person who can think this is allowed to report on the front page of this site. It shows an utter lack of respect for any major outside of UFC. I have seen Jan 2007 whitebelts have more thought in their mindless Chuck vs. Silva debates than that sentence.

I stopped reading Rossen for several months and I refuse to read Sloan (for his bias and because his hacky writing style makes me want to vomit). I opened todays Rossen article out of boredom and I should have known better. Any quality opinion he gives in every handful of articles is completely overshadowed by the trash that is in between.

I don't care about emailing Sloan or Rossen because that solves nothing. They won't become better writers because I bet they think they're really something already. I am more curious about how they get the job in the first place/who is the one picking these people? I haven't seen a thread about people wanting Rossen to be fired, but I have seen many about Sloan.

- Thanks

[eworden78]

This is an American site, with American writers, UFC is an American organization.

Do you expect the British newspapers to spend equal time discussing MLS and British Premier Soccer?

[Le Tigre]

Originally Posted by eworden78

This is an American site, with American writers, UFC is an American organization.

Do you expect the British newspapers to spend equal time discussing MLS and British Premier Soccer?

Terrible example.

The internet is boundless it does not restrict itself to a territory. The site is in English, but outside of that it is for anyone who can read English. The sites tag is "Sherdog.com - Serving up Heaping Fistfuls of Mixed Martial Arts". MMA not UFC. Besides the fact that Sherdog as a whole provides coverage of PRIDE, SHOOTO, K1 and any other international organization exceedingly well. I'm talking about these two writers. The site itself tells us about any sanctioned MMA fight anywhere in the world. But these two writers on the other hand don't.

My problem is with the writers and not the site. Way to get my point. No where do I say anything about Sherdog being the problem, outside of them hiring these two guys.

By the way, the product is supposed to service the customer. This site is more than an American site. This site caters to a large international audience. Therefore the writers I feel should reflect that. Sherdog itself has tried to do that already with the MM-Eh Canada reports and I forget the clever name for the Japanese MMA news ones.

My OP is about those two writers. If they are going to show the bias then they should just write about the UFC.

[eworden78]

Originally Posted by Le Tigre

Terrible example.

The internet is boundless it does not restrict itself to a territory. The site is in English, but outside of that it is for anyone who can read English. The sites tag is "Sherdog.com - Serving up Heaping Fistfuls of Mixed Martial Arts". MMA not UFC. Besides the fact that Sherdog as a whole provides coverage of PRIDE, SHOOTO, K1 and any other international organization exceedingly well. I'm talking about these two writers. The site itself tells us about any sanctioned MMA fight anywhere in the world. But these two writers on the other hand don't.

My problem is with the writers and not the site. Way to get my point. No where do I say anything about Sherdog being the problem, outside of them hiring these two guys.

By the way, the product is supposed to service the customer. This site is more than an American site. This site caters to a large international audience. Therefore the writers I feel should reflect that. Sherdog itself has tried to do that already with the MM-Eh Canada reports and I forget the clever name for the Japanese MMA news ones.

My OP is about those two writers. If they are going to show the bias then they should just write about the UFC.

It's not like they completely ignore all the other orgs. We're just talking about a very slight bias.
I'm saying that the bias should be expected because the site is based in the United States as is the majority of the site viewers.

I'm not blaming the site either, I am talking about the writers who I think are well suited for the audience the site brings.

[Le Tigre]

Originally Posted by eworden78

It's not like they completely ignore all the other orgs. We're just talking about a very slight bias.
I'm saying that the bias should be expected because the site is based in the United States as is the majority of the site viewers.

I'm not blaming the site either, I am talking about the writers who I think are well suited for the audience the site brings.

Slight bias?

"That Kimbo Slice bare-knuckle fight in a boatyard seemed more organized than anything PRIDE or K-1 has overseen"

That is way beyond slight. I haven't compounded a list of other quotes, but I certainly can recall more than a slight bias from both of them.

In my opinion, that Rossen quote is on the same level as the stupid shit that Jim Rome says about soccer. Jim Rome hates soccer and anytime the sport is brought up he will say how stupid soccer is, what a wasted effort it is and so on. Jim Rome isn't saying that he prefers basketball over soccer or something benign like that. He is actively just hating on something for no reason.

I am a soccer fan and if I end up watching Jim and/or PTI (which both of them hate soccer) and soccer is brought up they just can't stop themselves from ridiculing it. If they are not going to give it the same degree of "professionalism" as they give basketball, football, baseball and so on then they should not talk about it in general. Jim and the PTI duo no next to nothing about soccer, they prove it everytime they open their mouths. Soccer fans are not sitting around dying to hear what Jim Rome and PTI think about soccer.

Some would say then don't watch it or don't read it. I think that is fair to an extent. These people are supposedly reporting on something and in this case it is MMA. They are supposedly going to recap or share their opinion on some event. If they are not going to give an unbiased look at it then what is the point of them doing it in the first place.

[fanattic]

well, they are editorials and therefor opinion pieces. event results and interviews are reports and will stay closer to fact and farther from opinions

[dsr521]

Originally Posted by fanattic

well, they are editorials and therefor opinion pieces. event results and interviews are reports and will stay closer to fact and farther from opinions

i guess its just like fox news. they call it news, make it look like news but when you realize everything they say is bullshit and call them on it, it becomes an opinion... how convenient...

[Libero cane]

Good question.

In his latest article Sloan says that Rashad Evans is ready for someone like Mauricio Shogun..

[Fozzy]

Sloan and Rossen's collums are oppionated editorials.

They're allowed to be biased, the only thing that is not allowed to be biased is coverage of the news, and the news is solid and can have no bias factor.

so get over it

~Foz