My attention was first caught with this teaser piece to promote the 10 o’clock news:
They completely vilified Mixed Martial Arts by giving it the more vicious name of “Cage fighting.”
After the story aired, I revisited the post to see how the public perceived this poorly reported piece.
Thankfully the majority of people in the 57 comments were defending MMA. Unfortunately the rest took a hateful and spiteful stance on this spun piece of information.
The interesting thing about the responses were that the Pro MMA replies were well thought out intelligent argument. The anti MMA points were mostly one-liner pre-programmed hateful remarks based on emotional triggers placed in the story.
Here was my reply:
“Seriously, what a horrible spin on Martial Arts to fish for ratings and even further the uneducated public’s thoughts on what Mixed Martial Arts is all about. Let’s face the facts. MMA (UFC in it’s popular form) is taking the world by storm. FOX 12 Oregon will be featuring UFC multiple times a year now since the UFC has signed a deal with Fox, the parent company. It seems a little self defeating that they would want to run a negative piece on a sport that will bring them ratings rivaling that of the NFL. So why is this story negative? Because they showed kids practicing Mixed Martial Arts and called it cage fighting. Traditional martial arts (what I have trained in for too many years to count) is going the way of the dinosaur. It’s the priorities of Mixed Martial Arts that are truly effective for self defense. So in turn many martial arts schools out there have to rebrand themselves as an MMA school. If taught correctly, with discipline and respect, MMA is great for kids. There will always be a few bad teachers out there teaching kids “Fighting” and not self defense. Don’t let those bad teachers ruin the industry and the small business owners who are truly trying to share a knowledge that they love. Keep fearing and hating on what you don’t know, America. The more uneducated you stay, the easier it will be to control you once the time comes.”
The “news” happened to be from Nashville, TN off the AP Wire. Is the news that slow? What about Wall Street being occupied? Report on something that is actually happening in the country and not simple minded stuff for cheap ratings.
I have always been a fan of Fox 12 Oregon (only thing I’ve watch in past 10 years), but lately they’ve shown that they are no different than Fox News… Unfair and Unbalanced. Anyone know of any local news stations that are relevant and don’t wildly spin the news? KATU? KGW? Are you my new station of choice?
I think it’s time me and KPTV Fox 12 break up…