Dana White steamed over gay slur coverage
04.15.2009 2:27pm EDT
(Toronto, Ontario) No stranger to dropping the F-bomb, Ulitmate Fighting Championship president Dana White is still smarting over his use of the other F-word in a recent video blog.
He’s sorry he used the gay slur – and says he now knows better – but he’s not about to fade into the background. White is steamed at the way the story was covered.“In the United States, every single media outlet picked that thing up and carried it – people that won’t even cover us,” he told The Canadian Press in an interview.
“All these major media companies that pulled this blurb and threw it up everywhere, they weren’t looking out for gay people . . . They weren’t offended by it. It’s a cool quote to throw out there, get some attention, get some hits on the website, get some people buzzing and watching it. They could care less,” he added.
“I went directly to the people that I offended. And the reality is I have gay friends, I have gay people that I respect, that I work with and do things with. And I reached out to them and the people who could be offended by what I said, and I apologized and I told my side of the story.”
As to the rest of the media? White uses the F-bomb to describe what they can do to themselves.
“Because it has nothing to do with them. They used me, that’s the way I look at it.”
White, 39, is the face of the UFC, a colorful advocate of mixed martial arts who swears like a drunken sailor and has no internal self-edit button. It’s part of his appeal. Fans like his no bull approach, because he doesn’t try to snow them and because he is as passionate as they are about Mixed Martial Arts.
And reporters love a subject who speaks his mind.
He says exactly what he thinks on just about any topic – which can be ill-advised at the best of times, let alone for a celebrity who walks around with a camera in his face for blogging purposes.
For those who missed the story, an irate White unloaded earlier this month in his video blog on longtime MMA journalist Loretta Hunt, who writes for www.sherdog.com. Hunt’s story – which she stands by – said the UFC was trying to prevent managers and agents from being with fighters backstage, and that some managers believed the move was part of a larger attempt to wedge them out of business and deal directly with fighters.
White calls the story a crock and used the F-bomb 34 times to make his point in the three-minute nine-second video rant against the reporter – including once in tandem with the gay slur, which he used generically to reference an unidentified source in the story.
“Not the F-word I usually use but the other F-word,” he said wistfully Tuesday.
“I grew up saying that word, joking around with your friends. Anybody who knows me knows that I’m not the type of guy that would ever hurt anybody because they’re different, no matter whether it’s their sex, race, religion or whatever it is. It’s not me, it’s not what I’m like. I don’t do that.
“Do I swear a lot? Damn right I do. When I said that word, it wasn’t directed toward anybody gay, or anybody’s sexual orientation. It’s not what it was used for. I definitely pulled the wrong swear word out of the swear toolbox.”
White apologized for the use of the gay slur in a subsequent video, and talked to both the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and The Advocate. He did not apologize for slagging Hunt.
Take away the gay slur, however, and the blog in question is still uncomfortable to watch. It is spiteful and nasty _ a long way from the original intention of the video blogs, an attempt to keep White connected to the fans.
And many times, they were amusing _ albeit sometimes in a childish way. White’s travels, usually with another UFC exec or billionaire co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta _ backstage, in an SUV or private jet _ were kind of a Richie Rich version of “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”
There was a giggling White buying Fertitta skimpy workout gear. Or grumpily feeling the effects of a bad burger. Or gleefully pointing out to the camera that Fertitta was the one hung over that morning.
Video blogs that showed White and his fighters playing dueling “Guitar Hero” on his iPhone in the back of their SUV were entertaining. And footage of White, a father of three, playing Pac-Man with his young daughter was downright cute.
But there’s bad with the good of being able to record and share. One moment of pique, with a camera too close nearby, has had consequences – especially for a sport looking to win over mainstream support.
White admits the sherdog.com story “set me off and it made me mad.” So he fired back, for everyone to see.
“Back in 1987, if the media wrote something about you, you were screwed,” he said. “You had no voice, you couldn’t say anything back. Well now with the Internet, you can. You can come back. Yeah, did I go a little over the top? Absolutely, but that’s me. I am over the top and I was so pissed off about it. …”
Some thought he also went too far in a blog last year, when he seemed to delight in the demise of a rival organization. He takes things very personally.
“There’s another story that I read yesterday in a fight magazine, on my way here, that is such a crock of shit, it’s unbelievable,” he said. “I read this stuff and it’s like these guys make this stuff up. But I’ve got to stop getting so fired up about the small stuff like that.”
He admits it’s hard advice to follow.
“It is. Because we work hard. Man, we work hard at building this sport. We work hard at having great relationships with the fighters. To see people write bullshit, it’s crazy.”
White has his detractors, but also many supporters. While the UFC can be cutthroat and cheap to fledgling fighters, managers talk about how it will look after fighters down on their luck or in need of help. Big bonus cheques are awarded backstage, away from the prying eyes of the media.
Reward the UFC and the UFC will reward you right back.
The blog brouhaha came just weeks after the Armed Forces Foundation honored White and the UFC in Washington, D.C., with the Sheldon Adelson Patriot Award for humanitarianism in industry for “raising money and awareness for research and development in the field of traumatic brain injury” in their support of U.S. troops.
White may run a billion-dollar business, but he will stand and talk MMA with journalists until there are no more questions, even while security and aides fidget. And he will do the same with fans.
In person, he is hard to dislike. But his obvious passion can be a double-edged sword.
White will still be front and center, including this weekend at UFC 97 in Montreal, but his blog apparently is on the bench for the time being.
“I’m still on the fence with the whole blog thing,” he said Tuesday. “I have a blog right now that we shot yesterday (Monday) and now we’re all sitting around wondering if this is too controversial.”
“I’m me, I’m who I am. That’s not going to change, you know. Maybe who I am is too much, too much for the real world,” he added with a chuckle. “But I’m not going to deal with all the bullshit.
“I have enough things to do every day without dealing with people twisting what I said. To deal with what I dealt with last week, it takes a whole week off my plate when I should have been dealing with other stuff - stuff that matters, real work.”





Homophobia must be fought every time it rears it UGLY head. Dana White doesn’t get a free pass because he says he has “gay friends”. The man and his entourage wants publicity for the UFC and doesn’t want negative thing reported he has said! Hypocrite is all I can say
“All these major media companies that pulled this blurb and threw it up everywhere, they weren’t looking out for gay people . . . They weren’t offended by it. It’s a cool quote to throw out there, get some attention, get some hits on the website, get some people buzzing and watching it. They could care less,” he added.
Cool quote …? They could care less? It seems to me the person who thought it was cool was Dana, and now he’s having to backtrack. It seems to me the one who “could care less” is Dana. The following statement is why I make the above assertion.
“I went directly to the people that I offended. And the reality is I have gay friends, I have gay people that I respect, that I work with and do things with. And I reached out to them and the people who could be offended by what I said, and I apologized and I told my side of the story.”
“I told my side of the story.” Huh? He has gay friends, acquaintances, etc., that he respects, and he doesn’t know that the F-word is extremely offensive to those friends and acquaintances? What could his “side” of the story possibly be that doesn’t make him look as much like an insensitive boor as the original coverage?
He wants coverage by the media, but evidently it is only supposed to be supportive, positive coverage, and not any kind of coverage that shows him to be an insensitive boor.
“I have enough things to do every day without dealing with people twisting what I said.” What was twisted? All they did was report his usage of an extremely offensive word, a word that is offensive to a large segment of the population.
Maybe he should delete a few of the “enough” things he has to do, so he can devote a little bit of time and research on how to be less offensive and a little more sympathetic — which is what he appears to want.
And, since when has an apology, followed by lack of intent and blaming others for “twisted” reporting, really been deemed a honest, heart-felt apology?
Nah, it’s cool. Just like it’s cool to go around saying ‘kike’, ‘nigger’, and ‘wap’. I mean, hey, when you grow up with those words, right?
[Jerk].
Nah, it’s cool to say the f word, just like its okay to use the k word to define to jews, the n word to define blacks, and the w word to define mexicans- illegal or not- who came to the US. I mean, you grow up with that stuff, right?
[Jerk].
I second DeAnimator: [Jerk]
Well at first I thought I was just browsing the rants of another dire straight but then came the finale:
“I should have been dealing with other stuff – stuff that matters, real work.”
I see, we don’t matter nor do the feelings of your public. Actually I had already figured what type of homophobic bigot we are dealing with in the case of Dana White (sorta a gay name, don’t you think? Not butch by my standards…)…
he’s right, though, about mainstream media not giving a “f-word” about us but we all know that. What an awful human being Mr. White is — he should go hunting with my homophobic sociopathic brother.
I’m not too sure I see homophobia in Dana’s comments. He said what he said because that is how he speaks. He didn’t have the intention of making a “gay slur”. Calm down people.
Exactly skip. It’s funny that so many are making comments regarding this and they probably can not even tell you what the UFC is.
Somehow I don’t buy into making a big deal about this. I say fag, and yeah, it’s generally in a disrespectful manner (”Jeez, this whole place is eff’n full of eff’n Abercrombie fags”). Now, if somebody uses the word on me, I have no problem either asking why they’re interested, or just coming back with “Yeah. And?”.
Is this supposed to be a big deal because he’s not gay and he uses That Word? C’mon…if you’ve ever watched UFC, you know it’s hotter than 99% of gay porn you’ll ever see. Maybe that’s part of the reason I’ve seen ads for gay dating services during UFC and other MMA shows on TV. Maybe Dana White could mend fences by having an all-gay competition–he’d make money, and you’d have some seriously hot men in some intense physical competition. Call me a fag–I might clock you, I might show you who’s the “fag.” But I just can’t get wound up about this.
Skip & Trace
I’ve been a UFC fan since before most people knew it was there. Regardless it does not excuse the casual use of his word of choice. I do not sit with any of my friends and use without thinking a single deragatory slur. It’s easy and for the people you “think” don’t know what the ufc is does it really matter anyway? Seriously.
At least he apologized and admitted he has gay friends, he also said what he said in a huff and obviously does not go around slamming gays all the time. We have to realize that people will say things that aren’t politically correct without meaning a lifetime career of anti-whatever….let’s accept the apology, thank him for giving it instead of what he would have said if he were really homophobic…. then sit back and watch a good fight…because he really has put together a way for lots of young fighters to make a living and enjoy their sport. I’m gay and I don’t hold anything against him for it, cause you know, really, that s..t happens all the time, mostly with no malice intended
I don’t think this guy’s homophobic.
First, there’s this:
“Take away the gay slur, however, and the blog in question is still uncomfortable to watch. It is spiteful and nasty”. So, it’s a psycho rant. I don’t do that kind of venting, but I’ve seen it – perfectly sane people who blow their top and say all kinds of things they don’t mean and don’t truly believe. If you’re friends with someone like this, you know this about them and you tune it out. This guy’s got a big foul mouth. That’s as American as apple pie.
Second, in this case, don’t just toss out his “I have gay friends” line – the important part of it is that he said he has “gay friends at work”. Imagine the NFL saying that: it wouldn’t happen.
I’m a little older than this guy and I know how deeply ingrained that f-word is in, at least, Midwestern US English. I use it myself, though not out loud. I don’t use it as a reference to fellow GLBTQAIs. I use it – think it, actually – when I’m being an ass. It’s no big secret that the oppressed tend to maintain the use of the negative slurs once used against them. That’s a universal pattern, and GLBTQAIs are not exempt from human behavior. My generation is probably among the last to have gone to high school when homophobic slurs were completely acceptable among students and staff.
This guy admits he was being an ass, and he obviously doesn’t know how to use the media to his advantage. If anger-management classes work, maybe that’s what he needs. But I don’t think he’s a homophobe. He uses a slur that his highschool teachers and coaches used regularly and without a second thought (I’m guessing – that’s how it was at tony suburban private school). If this guy were a homophobe, he wouldn’t say he worked with GLBTQAIs – and he said he apologized directly to them.
If I have a hard time getting that word out of my head, I’m willing to believe some straight guy has the same problem. Frankly, his explanation works for me. I’m not sure he’s the kind of guy I’d want representing me on TV – temper tantrums are stupid – but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt before I call him a homophobe. He used a stupid term, and he apologized very publicly in great detail. The detail – apologizing personally to individuals, not claiming that there were no GLBTQAIs in his work environment, stating that he used the slur completely out of context (he was not talking about GLBTQAIs, he was having a psychotic nasty evil tantrum and reverted to the nastiest slur he could remember from middle school) – all those details added together don’t sound like a homophobe’s justification – but the whole incident does make me think that the poor guy’s retarded. Oh. wait. Can’t say “retarded” anymore.
See how that happens?
And when will we get something better than GLBTQAI? Makes me want to start saying the f-word again. Can’t we find something that’s just one syllable? I thought we were creative.
I was raised in a culture where insulting slurs were giggled about. That was thirty years ago. Today I cringe whenever I hear any slur towards any group of people. Dana needs to stfu! He was wrong and his half assed attempt at an apology was more of an insult in my opinion.
Barack Obama made a “Special Olympics” crack when he wasn’t even upset. I still don’t think he hates the handicapped.
HHmmm….
I am not different, I am GAY!
He is not upset over using the word but for being condemned for using the word.
HHmmmmm
Perhaps the Ultimate Fighting Championship figure head isn’t so much a fighter as he is a bully and believes that the use of inappropriate language is His right…. a right that He has….a right that absolves Him from any and all criticism.