Sunday, April 26, 2009
Sports

Provocative vlogging

When it comes to video blogging, or vlogging, everyone has something to say. But where’s the love, man?

Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Dana White

By Hunt Archbold

When it comes to video blogging, or vlogging, everyone has something to say. But where's the love, man?

Take the case of Dana White, the 39-year-old president of Ultimate Fighting Championship, the Las Vegas-based concern recognized as the largest mixed martial arts organization in the world. From near obscurity in 2005, the UFC has been on a meteoric rise, with its programming now shown in 36 countries worldwide. White has been described as a volatile egomaniac and has long howled about how the UFC deserves mainstream media coverage. And now that he’s going to get it, he may not like it.

Can you imagine what the repercussions would be if NBA Commissioner David Stern or NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell posted an obscenity-filled video blog rant that slurred women, homosexuals and the mentally disabled? Of course they’d be immediately relieved of their duties. But when White did precisely that earlier this month on YouTube, hardly anyone outside of those who follow MMA uttered a peep. Initially.

It was a story by Sherdog.com MMA reporter Loretta Hunt about UFC’s credentialing policy for fighters’ agents and managers that drew White’s ire. He swears an estimated 35 times in the three-minute diatribe, calling Hunt an “[expletive] dumb bitch,” among other insults, referring to the article as “an absolutely [expletive] retarded story,” and knocking an anonymous source she quoted by using an anti-gay slur as well as a slang term for female genitalia. He concludes his tirade by lobbing one final F-bomb at Hunt—and giving her the finger.

For her part, Hunt stood by her story 100 percent, but it took a few days for White to be called upon to apologize publicly. When he finally did so, he specifically did not include Hunt in the apology. But maybe she’ll get hers, as ESPN’s investigative program “E:60” recently interviewed White for a piece that will air May 12. Stay tuned.

Tuning into any news or entertainment program last week, it was hard not to notice the Perez Hilton-Miss California controversy centering on the Miss USA pageant contestant’s answer to his question about gay marriage—and of course his attack vlog and Twitter rantings, in which he called her a “dumb bitch.” The point here is not whether one agreed with Carrie Prejean, but the fact that she answered the question honestly, which is  more than a lot of politicians do these days.

Prejean didn’t say she hated gay people; she simply said she didn’t agree with gay marriage. Hilton spouts a lot of hate every day on his vlogs, ridiculing people for what they wear, their daily decisions and even how they look. He spreads rumors and ruins reputations. And yet when someone doesn’t follow his agenda, he goes off on a vlog tirade, portraying this woman as just short of the spawn of Satan himself.

Sure, this country was built on the notion of freedom of speech. But where is the respect and compassion in recognizing other beliefs might not be your own?

Last fall, during the election, two former athletic stars were on opposite sides California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. On one side, there was recently retired Major Leaguer Jeff Kent, baseball’s all-time home run leader for second basemen, who donated $15,000 to back the proposition. On the other side, there was Hall of Fame NFL quarterback Steve Young, a direct descendant of Brigham Young himself, contributing $37,000 to help defeat the amendment. Two superstars with conflicting opinions on a lightning-rod topic, speaking their minds.

But not vlogging hate like White and Hilton. Or Anthony Powell, the Dearborn, Mich., man who posted a series of hateful videos on YouTube in which he railed against black women, among other targets. When 20-year-old student Asia McGowan responded tastefully and tactfully in her own posted videos, it only angered Powell, who earlier this month found and killed McGowan in a college classroom before turning the gun on himself. So much hate.

But there’s a lot of vlogging love to be taken in, as well, such as the snippets posted by 26-year-old Atlantan Michael Galardi. He’s hiked the Appalachian Trail, completed marathons and triathlons and is an all-around outdoor enthusiast, so no one was surprised when he announced last year that he was leaving from south Florida on Jan. 1 to bike across the lower 48 states.

Galardi’s Web site, www.jollygreenicemachine.com, features blogs and vlogs filled with thoughts and visuals from his “jolly” journey through the bayou state, across Texas and the Southwest, and up the California coast to the Pacific Northwest, which is where he was last week when we exchanged online pleasantries.

“Control nothing and nothing controls you,” Galaradi wrote. “If there is always a positive and negative side to any situation, then why would one not focus on the positive?”

Words of wisdom from a jolly fella with 4,300 miles pedaled at his back, and an endless road of open-mindedness ahead. If only all vloggers could communicate in a similar manner.

Happy times … and ho-ho-ho, safe travels, green giant. SP

Sportopia Spike of Interest of the Week: Beach Volleyball

Classified by the NCAA as “sand” volleyball, the sport last week received a big boost, as the NCAA Division I Legislature voted to add it as an emerging sport for women, clearing the way for varsity competition in the 20010-11 academic year. It’s no wonder, considering more than 400,000 girls play high school indoor volleyball, and the popularity of beach volleyball at the Olympics and the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour, which makes its fourth straight visit to Atlantic Station next month (more than 40,000 have attended the first three years). As many landlocked universities, including those at Texas, Nebraska and Utah, have indicated they will field teams, we think new Georgia State University athletic director Cheryl Levick should consider the sport as a way for the attention-starved Panther athletic program to get noticed. Especially if the uniforms will be similar to what most players wear, which is next to nothing (for greater flexibility and improved aerodynamics, of course).