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Meet Joe Schoenmann
By Zach Arnold | March 11, 2007
By Zach Arnold
On Sunday, Las Vegas Sun writer Joe Schoenmann wrote what easily could be the most detestable article about MMA in the mainstream media for the year 2007. Schoenmann’s article, titled Evolution or Devolution?, featured as many baseless and/or conspiracy-laden arguments against the popularity of MMA in America as you could possibly read from a lazy mainstream media writer.
In addition to presenting an editorial viewpoint in an article nonetheless, Schoenmann not once quotes anyone inside the MMA industry itself (outside of the state athletic commissioners). No quotes from fighters, managers, promoters, or reporters. Reporters, including Las Vegas Sun staff writers like the respectable Jeff Haney that would have likely laughed at Schoenmann for what he was about to write for publication.
If Schoenmann had published this article on a blog, he would have been ripped to shreds for some of the statements he made. So we’re going to do him a favor and deconstruct his newspaper article arguments right here on our site.
In reading Schoenmann’s Ann Coulter-esque article, the cringe factor in reading some of the statements he makes is amazing — even for the most jaded follower of the fight game. Like Coulter, Schoenmann immediately starts flaming away before presenting any sort of legitimate argument:
Now, 10 years later, the commission gave the go-ahead to an Ultimate Fighting Championship match, a seal-clubbing throwback of a sport, with contests so brutal they remind you of the bare-knuckle prize fights that the nation outlawed as excessively violent more than a century ago.
It doesn’t matter what part of the fight game you are talking about (boxing, wrestling, MMA, etc.), it’s all brutal. It is about violence. Immediately, we see Schoenmann try to place moral judgments on sectors of the fight game.
His top flip-flop in the article starts off by calling UFC the equivalent of seal-clubbing. Later in the article, Schoenmann freely admits that there have been no deaths in MMA in the modern era (PRIDE, UFC, HEROs, IFL, etc.) Yet, it was one week ago that boxer Victor Burgos found himself battling to stay alive after losing to Vic Darchinyan in a 12-round boxing match. Darchinyan stated afterwards that the incident would not change his fight style and stated, “It’s boxing, this can happen to anyone.”
But don’t you dare correct Schoenmann because he has the absolute moral authority that you can’t question — otherwise he’ll lump you into this category (according to his own words in the article): It looks like simple brawling, just don’t say that to purists who can quote chapter and verse about the extremely technical nature of the battle.
Attempting to hide behind cover to prop up his initial statements, Schoenmann quotes San Jose State University sports studies assistant professor Matt Masucci. Here is how he introduces Masucci:
Masucci is going through training for the sport, known as “mixed martial arts,” as part of his research in trying to understand why nonprofessionals take up boxing, karate or other unarmed combat sports.
So, we’ve now gone from placing moral judgments on fight game sectors to calling aspiring MMA fighters nonprofessionals and barbarians. That’s a really original mainstream media argument. Never heard that one before.
With Schoenmann trying to establish these stereotypes as factual, he turns to famous Las Vegas native and boxing commentator Al Bernstein. Bernstein has long been a face for boxing on television and also Jim Feist gambling infomercials. So, you know where his bread is buttered. Schoenmann quotes Bernstein to attempt to add layers to his already laughable premises about MMA in America:
“I’ve sensed a tremendous softening in terms of people who found boxing offensive,” says Bernstein, reached at an Indian reservation casino in Michigan for a boxing match.
So, the first layer that is being added here is to claim that in terms of tolerating violence in America, the tolerance has gone up and the whole country’s moral values have declined. Keep in mind that Bernstein is making these comments from an Indian reservation to watch boxing while Schoenmann is quoting state athletic commissioners about why they are regulating MMA. The juxtaposition couldn’t have been more ironic.
Chuckling, Bernstein admits to being perplexed that the fan base seems to him to be the same people who vote into office conservatives who espouse belief in a peace-loving God.
So now, Bernstein is trying to make MMA political. He’s saying that people who support it are only conservatives (he clearly has not read the comments section of my site, then…) This is the classic red state/blue state political argument that people make about pro-wrestling, boxing, and other sports. The reality is that the fight game attracts people of all political persuasions. It’s fighting, not a political primary debate. However, this once again ties in with Schoenmann’s earlier premise of absolute moral authority — which is that you can’t question his argument because it’s inherently right and if you challenge it, you’re wrong.
Let’s count the stereotypes so far being presented here in half of the article:
- Different sectors of the fight game should have different moral judgments and values placed on them.
- MMA is the equivalent of seal-clubbing, despite admitting that there are no deaths in the modern era and boxing continues to have high-profile tragedies.
- Aspiring MMA fighters are nonprofessional barbarians.
- Because less people find boxing offensive, therefore it means Americans are tolerating more violence which is why MMA is growing in popularity.
- MMA’s fan base is made up entirely of God-fearing, politically conservative people.
Let’s continue on. Schoenmann quotes Kevin Grace, a sports historian at the University of Cincinnati. Schoenmann’s tag line on him: whose research includes “bloodsports of the underclass.”
The fan base is growing because of slick marketing, with the personalities of fighters played up much the same way the backgrounds of Olympians are introduced to make coverage more interesting. … “Yeah, we are stupid,” Grace says. “We want sound bites, immediate gratification and highlights. Even professional football, as popular as it is, doesn’t have that. It plods along, you run a play, you break, you run another.”
Here’s another stereotype to add onto MMA fans — they’re not smart enough to realize what they are watching, as they are just suckers for slick marketing campaigns that tell them what they should watch. So now we see someone trying to apply the same argument that has been used against pro-wrestling fans for years in America onto MMA fans.
Want more profile-building about who you really are as an MMA fan?
Grace also believes mixed martial arts is catching on, to some degree, because of 9/11.
That’s right — you watch MMA because of 9/11. You are uncontrollable and filled with anger, rage, and testosterone.
Well, except for the growing amount of female fans watching the sport. That, and people used to watch UFC in the early 1990s. And people who used to watch PRIDE events with match-ups like Nobuhiko Takada vs. Rickson Gracie (that drew about 40,000 per show at the time) in the mid-to-late 1990s.
It must have been Dana White that brought in stereotypical Muslim characters to be destroyed in the cage for MMA fights to really bring out the fighting spirit in fight fans. Oh wait… that was Vince McMahon, right around the 7/7 London bombings, too. And that didn’t exactly go over very well. Nevermind.
Schoenmann has one more stereotype about MMA, one that I never heard of until he pointed it out.
On the other bloody hand, no nancy-boys are allowed. You go into that cage, you fight. The rules strictly forbid “throwing in the towel” or showing any sign of “timidity – including and without limitation, avoiding contact with an opponent, intentionally or consistently dropping the mouthpiece or faking an injury.”
Someone smarten up Jason MacDonald and his camp after the fight got stopped (after round two) with Rich Franklin at UFC 68 on March 3rd in Columbus, Ohio. As Zack points out in the comments, UFC’s HP actually lists that you can’t throw the towel in during a fight. But anyone who has actually watched a UFC event knows that if a fighter needs to be stopped (doctor stoppage, verbally quitting, tapping out), it happens. Therefore, Schoenmann is technically right on this assertion, but it’s very clear that he hasn’t watched much UFC at all.
I’d hate to see this guy watch a PRIDE show with those evil yellow cards and 10% purse deductions.
Let’s repeat all of the stereotypes established about MMA by Joe Schoenmann in this one article:
- Different sectors of the fight game should have different moral judgments and values placed on them.
- MMA is the equivalent of seal-clubbing, despite admitting that there are no deaths in the modern era and boxing continues to have high-profile tragedies.
- Aspiring MMA fighters are nonprofessional barbarians.
- Because less people find boxing offensive, therefore it means Americans are tolerating more violence which is why MMA is growing in popularity.
- MMA’s fan base is made up entirely of God-fearing, politically conservative people.
- You watch MMA because you are brainwashed by the various slick marketing campaigns being presented to you. In other words, you’re too stupid to figure out right from wrong.
- You watch MMA because you suffer from 9/11-related emotional trauma that requires you to see people get hurt and brutalized so that you can take out your frustrations on someone.
- You can’t throw in the towel during a fight, therefore you can’t quit (besides tapout) in the UFC like you can in boxing or other forms of fighting.
After learning all these different things that I never knew about covering the fight game for over a decade, he finishes off with a message to us all:
Yet people are watching – all kinds of people, even those you might think should know better.
Yes, we’re watching all right. We’re watching you make a jackass out of yourself and also making a fool out of managing editor Michael J. Kelley for allowing your completely baseless and factually-challenged article into the sports section of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper.
The fact that you had no decency in talking to anyone inside the industry itself (outside of the athletic commissioners) is bad enough. It’s even worse when you could have had your article fact-checked by a fellow, respectable writer at your newspaper named Jeff Haney. However, his fact-checking wouldn’t have helped your tripe fit into the pre-made template you developed in regards to the MMA industry as a whole.
For that, the newspaper should suspend you indefinitely.
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 16 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
That is actually in the UFC rules believe it or not, eventhough it may unofficially be that you can’t throw a towel (or other object) into the cage during a round.
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=LearnUFC.Rules
Foul #31.
man…that gave me a headache.
That can’t be right, you should still be able to throw in a towel to signify a corner stop…what else is the ref going to do when a towel is thrown, stop the fight a deduct a point? Towel throwing in MMA is academic nowadays since the refs are pretty good at stopping the fight (Herb Dean, take a bow), but I remember distinctly a corner threw a towel in a UFC match recently but it was not counted since the ref had stopped the fight at the same time.
The NSAC rules are goofy, they don’t even list knockouts as a match outcome.
I’m surprised you didn’t quote one of the most disturbing parts of the ‘article right at the beginning:
How can anyone take this guy’s rational seriously after a comment like that? On one hand it really disturbs me that something like this can be published. On the other hand I think it comes across as kooky to most people as it does to us.
Zack … this is kind of funny, but the foul is the literal act of cornermen throwing the towel into the ring during competition. Not ‘throwing in the towel’ aka quitting or having a cornerman stop the fight between rounds.
Wow, he called me stupid. Slick.
I better go join a church while I’m at it, no more Atheism for me! I’m an MMA fan!
This is what TVWeek calls “blood genre” (from http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=31502):
“Putting “Scarred” on the channel’s schedule adds to MTV’s roster of series in the emerging television category that could be described as the “blood genre.” Like the network’s well-performing “Wrestling Society X” and “Bam’s Unholy Reunion,” this type of show features people regularly putting their bodies on the line either by performing insane stunts or by fighting in a ring. It provides a ratings draw throughout the cable world via shows like “Ultimate Fighting Challenge” on MTV’s sibling network Spike.”
In other words, its the genre that was defined by Jackass. Compare Jackass, where bodies are on the line, and actual goodness-to-betsy blood sports, where lives are on the line, and you get the feeling Schoenmann was taking liberties with his rhetoric.
This writer is a real douchebag. He doesn’t know jack shit, and proves it with every paragraph.
Bah, I stopped reading garbage like that piece four years ago (altough I did skim through it :D), and IMO, your always going to have negative media. As long as Zuffa keeps growing as a company (all be it, with the “Zuffa myth”), these kind of articles will be drowned out by fans who understand what’s going on, and are highly educated to the sport.
If anything, I’m more worried someone in the US is going to write a scandal piece connecting Zuffa, the Navada State Athletic Commission, and the UFC, to the mob, thus making fans believe that weak booking of a show is instead a crocked promotion fixing fights. Whether that story is real or not, IMO, that would do more damage to the sport of MMA, then some yahoo yokel writing a story that would get him a C+ for a 10th grade English paper, explaining why he thinks fighting is bad.
Hmm. Interesting. Here’s a point on the “towel throwing” portion.
I was actually a participant listening to the “articles of regulations” that were read to the fighters before the IFL Houston Event by a state official during the “safety meeting”. I need to go dig up the video somewhere. They clarified that “towel throwing” rule.
They basically stated that it was illegal to throw a towel into the ring but that the appropriate action was to notify a state official either verbally or with a hand motion and that the match would then be stopped immediately.
My personal assumption of the reasons was that throwing a towel in the ring could cause a fighter slippage of some sorts and therefore was prohibited.
One of the other weird rules that the Texas board official stated was that they do not allow ice of any kind in, around, or near the arena. Period. Bagged Ice, Loose Ice, ice cubes, etc were all prohibited because of past fiasco’s with slippage, etc.
The fighters had to resort to putting a cooler full of ice and water bottles behind the stage and using runners to bring up the cold bottles in between rounds.
If it hadn’t been for 9-11, I would still watch peaceful boxing instead of gory mma.
Damn terrorists going back in time to 1998 and subconsciously scarring me with the horrors of 9-11. I always wondered why i started watching this stuff. Now i know!
I live in Vegas and read this garbage on Saturday. I was shocked b/c The SUN usually does a find job in covering MMA and the UFC. I have sent the editor a letter expressing my disappoint with his writers “prose”.
The 9/11 connection is honestly the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. Like we only watched Disney movies before 2001, where all of a sudden people acquired a taste for the sordid.
[…] According to Fight Network Radio, Al Bernstein has been hired by Steele Cage Promotions to start doing MMA commentary for the company. His first booking is on 12/28 in Las Vegas. Why is this funny? Here’s your refresher course. […]
Man you are a grumpy lot. I actually thought it was a well written piece. Now obviously I don’t draw the same conclusion about the abhorrent nature of the type of violence in MMA but I can’t fault him for drawing a different conclusion then me. At least he did research the sport and clearly has enough to base his opinion on. I hate when people say things like” well I can’t stand a sport where the goal is to kill each other” or “it not a sport because they allow and encourage groin shots, eye gouging and biting”. These types of comments just show that the person is totally ignorant and basically just making things up. The author clearly researched his articule and came to conclude that he did not like MMA. That is his business. As for his assessment of the low brow nature of the fans, log onto Sherdog and tell me he is wrong. Now obviously not everybody is going to fit into one catagory but its not like the type of fan he descirbes does not exist. One of the things that many fans like about MMA is the fast pace of the fights and a lot of people do like the brutality.
Basically it comes down to the author not having any love for a vilolent, brutal sport. And make no mistake MMA is violent and at times very brutal.