I owe Brian Stann an apology.
My Apology To Brian Stann
About seven months ago he was on my radio show on 106.7 The Fan. This was just before his fight with Mike Massenzio at UFC on Versus 2.
At the time I was working on BloodyElbow.com and the writers and community there were feverishly debating the issues of teammate vs. teammate as well as who would win a fight between Rashad Evans and Jon Jones. After all, both were teammates in the same weight class and the match-up is exciting when you really noodle it.
So, on the air, I ask him how he thought that fight would go. He was training with both fighters. Stann, candidly but politely makes the case for Rashad Evans. There’s nothing particularly controversial about his pick. We moved on to Stann’s book after that topic.
As I customarily did after interviews on the air, I had my interviews transcribed by help on the show. I put the transcription that was given to me in a post and published it, along with the audio of the interview.
Where’s the problem with that? It turns out that a key portion of the transcribed text was never said by Stann. Specifically, “Rashad Evans would beat Jon hands down”. Again, Stann did say Evans would be the victor, but this particular sentence was never uttered by the former Marine officer.
What’s worse? This nonexistent statement that was never made was what I used for my headline. With quotation marks.
That is an epic, epic fail on my part.
I didn’t bother to properly double check the transcription. The guy who did it was always good to me, a thorough worker and without ulterior motive. I don’t know how the error found its way into the transcription, but it did. This was an uncharacteristic error from someone normally meticulous.
And really, what’s awful about that is it’s a basic fix. I asked the transcriber at the time if he was sure everything was accurate. I’m sure he was as was I. The problem is that we were both wrong and too arrogant to double check.
Yes, I was working three jobs at the time. Yes, I was just trying to meet publishing deadlines. Yes, I had no intention of misrepresenting someone. It doesn’t matter. Either you get the transcription right or you don’t. Either you faithfully represent someone’s words or you don’t. I didn’t.
I knew he was mad at me, but couldn’t really figure out why. Jesus, it makes sense now.
To Brian: you have my sincerest apology. This is easily my biggest mistake since covering mixed martial arts. No doubt about it. It’s an egregious error that could’ve been simply fixed. Only now did I catch it because a friend brought the discrepancy to my attention.
My pledge to all fighters and all readers going forward is that this will never happen again. I’m not sure I even trust anyone to ever transcribe my work ever again. And if they do, I have a responsibility to make sure every word, every ounce of inflection and every morsel of conversation is properly conveyed.
I doubt this matters much in the daily grind of Stann’s life. But I hope at least he reads this mea culpa. He was right. I was wrong. I pledge to move correctly and to the best of my ability from here. It’s the least I can do.
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