"Bulldog Under Attack"

That was the headline I noticed in the "Canadian Bulldog's Pound" section of the World Wrestling Insanity forums Sunday night. This was a post from someone who had heard my audios criticizing certain websites of their reporting in the Benoit and drug-related coverage.

My position has been simple: this is not about even debating the facts in this case. I'm not qualified to report on what Benoit may or may not have done to his body, what was "acceptable" versus "unacceptable", and who should be shouldering the blame. While I'm a reporter when I'm not wearing the "Bulldog" hat, I'm not a reporter when I write wrestling parody, and I've never pretended to be anything but.

But there are people who consider themselves wrestling media (one site in particular) and the way they've infused "fact" with "opinion" should be appalling to anyone involved with journalism. People read these websites in search of news, but someone's personal agenda. Again, I'm not saying the wellness program WWE has in place isn't flawed; that's not even my point. As I mentioned in one of my audios, if, say, a prominent news anchor was to talk about the scandal of the day, and then mumble "Yeah, bullshit" under his or her breath, it would be akin to poor reporting and conflict of interest. But in the wrestling media, it seems to be a perfectly acceptable practice.