Nothing Personal, Just Doing My Job: Confessions of a "Pactard" Writer

Boxing writers write about boxing. They tend to write more often about popular boxers.

It is generally customary in all forms of journalism to cover the issues, events, and personalities that the public is most interested in.

When Joe Louis was “the man”, boxing writers wrote about “The Brown Bomber”.

When Ali was dazzling the boxing world with his exceptional talent by knocking out guys that he wasn’t even supposed to be able to beat, they wrote about “The Greatest”.

When Mike Tyson was the most feared man in the sport, they wrote about the invincible “Iron Mike”.

Now is the era of Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, and boxing writers are giving him tons of attention.

In fact, it has been called to my attention that my own attention span is too short to pay attention long enough to give attention to other boxers.

That’s not true.

I’ve written articles about other boxers. The fact that nobody actually read those particular pieces does not negate the fact that I wrote them.  

In the “comments” sections of my articles, I have been properly schooled on “journalistic integrity”. One particular gentleman basically gave me the definition of the term.

To the best of my understanding, the definition of journalistic integrity is as follows:

Journalistic integrity—the wasting of massive amounts of time and energy researching and writing for free about issues, events, and personalities in order to create articles that nobody will read.

If that’s journalistic integrity, I guess I’ll have to pass.

If journalistic integrity really means honesty, accuracy, and objectivity, I’ll fare much better.

Honesty: No problem here. I’m not dishonest.

Accuracy: I’ve inadvertently made some mistakes that I’ve had to go back and edit.

Objectivity: Facts that don’t happen to correspond with another person’s opinions do not denote a lack of objectivity.

Look around.

Ask your neighbor.

Call your friends.

Talk to “the guy on the street”.

It won’t take hours of hard research to learn that there is one particular guy that boxing fans just can’t seem to get enough of.

Manny Pacquiao is the hottest boxer in the sport.

As the No. 1 Pound-for-Pound king, the first and only seven-time world title earner in seven different weight divisions, and current WBO welterweight champion of the world, how the heck could he not be?

The boxing world is by no means devoid of talented up-and-comers. Nonito Donaire Jr., Juan Manuel Lopez, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Andre Berto, Amir Khan, Timothy Bradley, Chad Dawson, and David Haye are just a few of the boxers that are beginning to make their mark in the sport.

All of these boxers are starting to receive the proper “air time”, with much promise of more to come. I am passionate about boxing, and I look forward to writing about all of these guys—as well as others.

The current results of a poll that was included in one of my latest articles show that 94.9 percent of 952 voters responded that they want to see more Pacquiao-related commentaries.  

If you passionately agree or vehemently disagree, feel free to cast your vote.

The poll can be found here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/335056-manny-pacquiao-an-overrated-cherry-picker-think-again

I'm not concerned that my “journalistic integrity” has been called into question by a few because I write about Pacquiao a lot. 95 percent of those who responded to the poll asked for more.

The majority always rules. 

While I tend to feel that calling the two top pound-for-pound boxers names like “Fraud Gayweather” and “Pacroid” is childish and should be avoided in the discussions—go ahead and call me a “Pactard” if it makes you feel better.

I, for one, realize that it’s really the boxers who are important—not writers the likes of myself.

And as Manny always says:

“Nothing personal… I’m just doing my job and trying to make people happy.”

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