Who Is Reporting Me – Does It Matter Who has the Camera, the Pen, the Keyboard?

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

An opinion piece from the only Donald worth listening to…

Full Stop – In British English grammar a full stop is a lengthy pause, in the US, you call it a period. In the UK that tends to suggest feminine products. Here it means a period of time where I look at something in boxing in a little more depth. I am typing from my perspective of a fan who watches the sport closely. It’s an opinion. It is my opinion. Don’t like it? There are other opinions out there but if you don’t like it then good, debate and democracy are a good thing. If you do like it, feel free to spread the word.

Who is reporting me – does it matter who has the camera, the pen, the keyboard?

So, here’s the thing. I have always described myself as a fan with a keyboard. Nothing else. I have little or no technical expertise which allows me to describe the action, make commentary around the boxer’s feet or try and whisper the criticisms that the likes of Joshua Buatsi recently made over the commentary team behind his lackluster performance win.

I have never laced a glove and do not pretend to have a black book filled with trainer’s numbers meaning that I can give you the latest gossip and insight into the boxing world. I love the sport, admire the pugilists and love to tell the story.

There are names that I admire, Steve Bunce, Thomas Hauser, Donald McRae, Andy Clarke, podcasts I listen to, Toe 2 Toe, Macklin’s Take and The Opening Bell. I have subscriptions to DAZN, Fite TV, Sky Sports and BT Sport as well as listen to or watch IFL TV. There’s more, which sits alongside my subscription to Boxing News.

And when I write, I hope that it shows I do my research, not in a Trumpian sense, but a journalistic one. I am, after all, a proud member of the National Union of Journalists.

But, here’s the thing. The rise in citizen journalists, of having people who are now accredited to sit ringside with an opportunity to report on what is happening because they have some form of access to fighters and trainers, and promoters and pundits, and commentators and other journalists has blown up over the last few years. Coupled with an increasing number of fighters who feel that, in order to make a play for attention in a crowded market there is a need for showing off, or having a pretend beef, or indulging in more and more bizarre incidents at weigh ins and press conferences, it is beginning to feel increasingly like the circus comes to town. Which can be fine.

There is also the attention that the likes of Misfits and YouTube boxing has achieved. This allows fringe contenders who are simply not professional boxers to get in a ring, attract a crowd and try to influence their careers in a positive manner. Whether it be a spectacle of throwing fish in a face to face or before getting beaten in the ring, dropping your jeans during an interview to make a point or just looking like heart attack in shorts whilst trying to throw punches at a target that is not just difficult to hit, but impossible to fathom why anyone thought having these two specimens in a ring was a positive for boxing, there are plenty of criticisms, opinions and happy clappy chancers willing to write about it – like me…
The fact is that boxing sells, and boxing is box office.

Citizen journalism has its place. In Scotland one of our biggest soccer teams, Rangers, was at one time being badly run and running out of money to survive. Ordinary people and angry ones with keyboards began to investigate. The mainstream media were not keen on criticizing what was going on at the soccer club. The BBC have been banned from reporting at their ground because they, late to the party, weighed in with a program heavily critical of the club.

But in boxing we are beginning to get media outlets at a point where content is less and less helpful – and not just when they thrust a microphone in front of Eddie Hearn. Boxers and trainers who have been in the game for some time, have become really adept at working the media but there are some who, beyond Tik Tok, struggle because they are new at it all. Even the likes of Dillian Whyte, when rattled can spout nonsense in the middle of interview, accusing one rival of being a pedophile.

Of course, media manipulation can be traced back to the Louisville Lip and the desire of a hungry editor for content or a TV host for guests can lead to mutually beneficial relationships. We only have to look at how Eddie Hearn and IFL TV seem to have built a brand around the relationship that seems cozy. It has led to some mainstream criticism from an amateur in the field himself, Simon Jordan, from UK based Talk Sport.

Right now, media accreditation and the role of the media in the promotion of the sport, and criticism of it, appears relatively healthy. But the rise of people who have little by way of formal training or life experience may end up with some expose that is far from being one. The effects of a pile on through social media or some of these daft and ridiculous videos with clickbait headlines will only serve at some point to damage an individual. Look at Conor Benn. His volte face through his ban and failed tests has been nothing short of an ongoing pantomime. It is the sport and the individual who have suffered. And that, no matter how popular the sport is, can never be a good thing.

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