Op-Ed: Yes, Gawker Media and MMAFighting.com got EXACTLY what was coming to them…

One of them is pretty much dead, the other might as well be.

Combat sports personalities were on different ends of the spectrum last week as it pertains to getting in trouble for doing their jobs wrong. On one hand, Gawker Media, officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week after the Immortal Hulk Hogan spent most of 2016 running a train on website founder Nick Denton for $140 million.

This after Gawker posted a behind-the-scenes video of Hulk Hogan plowing Bubba the Love Sponge’s ex-wife Heather Clem on their site, despite Hogan’s motions for the site to take said footage down, Denton decided to leave the video up. That resulted in the aforementioned suit that Hogan won and subsequently put Nick’s company up for sale. Ziff Davis is rumored for the pick up, this after io9 was shuttered in favor of Gizmodo last year. (Side Note: io9 used to plagiarize our site all the time and not give us credit. )

Truth be told, I’m glad Hogan won. Nick can’t use freedom of speech or journalism as an excuse to post an explicit video like that, and quite frankly, if you need that kind of content to make your website socially relevant, then you are doing something wrong.

Quite similarly, Ariel Helwani just went through an ordeal last week. For those that don’t know, Ariel Helwani is an ex-FOX Sports reporter for the UFC whom was fired for being an asshole. While reporting at UFC 199 for MMAFighting.com, Ariel let loose that Brock Lesnar was coming back for a fight at UFC 200 despite being told not to.  UFC security had escorted Ariel and his crew OUT of the arena, and were banned from covering future UFC events. The next day Zuffa Sports, LLC rescinded the ban, but let SB Nation know (the company that owns MMAFighting.com) that their lead reporter (aka Ariel) is becoming a nuisance and needs to be kept on his leash.

Look, I’ve been there. You get a big story, but the PR people tell you not to let anyone know until they say it’s OK. As a journalist, your job is to keep those relationships with your PR reps solid, not be an asshole. Not to say I haven’t burned a few bridges in my time here at Bubbleblabber, but eventually I learned my lesson. Ariel was fired from FOX Sports, and then he pulls this crap.
In both cases, editors (both Ariel and Nick are editors here) need to be not so desperate for stories as to risk their publications for traffic. In both cases, whether it’s MMAFighting.com or Gawker, the editors need to realize that other peoples’ livelihoods are on the line, and it’s not their place to be selfish. Because if you are, shit like this happens. While Ariel isn’t completely put out of business (yet), I’m very much looking forward to the Gawker Media sites going down the drain.