Late last year a story about Paddy Pimblett asking to be paid for an appearance on the MMA Hour went viral. Pimblett was put on blast by Helwani after getting accused of ‘profitting’ from interviews.
Journalists shouldn’t pay for an interview for several reasons:
- Ethical concerns: Paying for interviews can be seen as a form of bribery, which undermines the integrity of journalism. It can create conflicts of interest, bias, and compromise the credibility of the story.
- Access: Paying for interviews can create a situation where only those who are willing to be paid will speak to journalists. This could exclude important sources who may not be comfortable with receiving payment, or who may not want to be seen as “selling” their story.
- Quality of information: If interviewees are paid for their information, they may be incentivized to provide sensational or exaggerated details, rather than accurate and truthful information.
Overall, paying for interviews is generally considered unethical and can compromise the integrity of journalism.
But that allegedly didn’t stop UFC debutant Sedriques Dumas from asking to be reimbursed.
Screenshots were shared on twitter by an unrelated account.
The story surfaced on social media yesterday, in the screenshots it can be seen that Dumas is implying that his management asked for a reimbursement. His managers have since come out and denied that they were involved.
“So a no name media outlet wants to interview a client who is preparing for his debut. Said client asks for money to do the interview. So called “journalist” gets upset he asked for money. I encourage all media members to ask any one from Ariel to Luke to mike to Marc if I have ever asked for a payment for a client. It’s never happened. The so called reporter has 78 views on his most popular YouTube video on his page and is upset my client wants to get paid for his time? I applaud my client cause really anyone can say they are a reporter and start doing interviews with athletes under the guise of “media”. Stay off my guy, he will get all the pertinent media during fight week.” – Abraham Kawa responded on social media.
While Kawa is citing low number of views as one of the reasons they declined, this necessarily isn’t indicative of the web outlet. Even UFC veterans who do interviews with established outlets tend to get a low number of views. Helwani and Morning Kombat seem the be the outliers and even they can be hit or miss.