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Profiles in Courage: Leonard Shapiro
By Zach Arnold | July 25, 2007
By Zach Arnold
Washington Post columnist Leonard Shapiro is calling for MMA to be banned from TV. As you can imagine, my reaction to this is the same as his reaction would be if I told him that women’s golf shouldn’t be on TV.
Wouldn’t it be nice to forever ban Ultimate Fighting from the airwaves, not to mention the pages of my favorite Washington newspaper? It’s gratuitous street fighting violence, pure and simple, and spare me the mixed martial arts garbage or readership surveys that say it appeals to potential 18- to 34-year-old readers. You watch this stuff, you don’t read.
Show Len that you, in fact, can read and write by sending him an e-mail at badgerlen@hotmail.com and badgerlen@aol.com.
To show Len that I in fact can read, I decided to read what else he had to say about MMA in past columns. Like this one from June 5th:
There’s also one troubling postscript to all this. HBO actually has been negotiating in recent months with Ultimate Fight executives to possibly begin televising some of their matches. HBO suits see the stunning pay per view numbers, and they also see that this despicable human blood sport is huge with the 18- to 34 year-old male demographic, and has no interest in broadening that base. Essentially, they see a money-making opportunity, and so what if it looks like back-alley street fighting between brawling brutes.
Shame on those HBO suits for even talking to them. Better they should bring back Deadwood.
Topics: MMA, Media, UFC, Zach Arnold | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Just remember, before they instituted that players wear pads, Americans wanted professional (american style) football to be banned. And, look at where that sport is today
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He, uh, didn’t like Deadwood?
What?
In any given segment of society, be it sports or politics, there are going to be a few unenlightened simpletons who have somehow risen to a position of prominence. My personal inclination is to simply ignore this guy. MMA isn’t going to be banned from any media market. You know it and he knows it. That Shapiro suggests it should be does no make it so and I think you’re only giving the guy some shred of credibility by heaping all sorts of attention (and emails) on him.
There is nothing you or anybody else can say that could change Shapiro’s mind one iota. I’ve run into countless people who still think that wearing a motorcycle helmet is more dangerous than not wearing one. The point is that with some people nothing will ever alter their thinking or reasoning. So you’re wasting your breath on them.
I think efforts made towards the managing editor of sports might be time better spent.
Isn’t it amusing that individuals like this Shapiro who proclaim themselves & their views to be of a higher moral & intellectual standard are, infact, some of the most ignorant people out there?
Like RogueSpear before me said, there’s no amount of arguing that is going to change this idiot’s opinion. He’s obviously seen a few clips of the old early UFCs from well over a decade ago, when the sport was in it’s infancy & much more NHB than MMA & formed his opinion based on that. And has his “blinders” firmly in place to prevent anything from altering that viewpoint.
No matter how many might try to reason with & educate this individual to the sport’s legitimacy, he’s going to cling to his narrow minded ideas about MMA, the UFC & it’s participants & fans, regardless of how articulate & intelligent their presentations might be. Because it apparently offers him some feeling of superiority over those who don’t share his views.
Which, just proves his ignorance.