When Hauser is inducted into the IBHOF (probably sooner rather than later), all the dots will connect in a great disharmony of conflicted synchronization?
?Thomas [Hauser] describes writing for Secondsout.com as a chance to ?explore new frontiers and deliver cutting-edge material to website readers.???SecondOut.com
?Thomas Hauser is the author of 41 books. In 2005, he was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him.??The Sweet Science
?I am at the point where I periodically search for ?writing by Thomas Hauser.? The guy loves boxing as I do and knows what he is talking about. He is honest without being either fawning or unduly critical. My dream would be to go to New York and spend a couple days with him attending fights and maybe lunching with fight people, including his mother. You simply can?t go wrong with anything this guy writes. If you buy this book I guarantee you will be trying to buy his older books. Black Lights was absolutely great. Go ahead and get a taste of some Hauser. You won?t regret it.??G. Haynes on Dec. 4, 2013
Gravitas
Thomas Hauser has authored books on subjects ranging from professional boxing to Beethoven. His first work, Missing, was made into an Academy Award?winning film. He consistently receives awards from his fellow members of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). Many seem to sycophantically?even slavishly?crave his attention. I have quoted him in many of my own articles as well though I believe he is overrated. He is often seen and quoted in films like ?When We Were Kings? and documentaries like ?Thrilla in Manila? and cited in other works of importance. He has been called everything from ?esteemed? and ?acclaimed? to ?pompous? and ?conflicted,? but no one can say he is not prolific. Consider his income streams, including upfront money from publishers, royalties, consulting fees, online writing compensation, and work for RING Magazine, and it becomes clear that writing about boxing has been good to him.
Hauser has written over 41 books, though some are merely a compilation of his essays of the past year while others such as The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing are truly outstanding stand-alone works and reflect his keen sense of boxing. In 1981, he published a novel, Ashworth & Palmer, set in a fictional law firm, which was inspired by his experience as an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore from 1971 through 1977, following his graduation from Columbia Law School in 1970.
In 1981, he published the crime novel Dear Hannah (TOR Books) about a serial killer in New York City. In 1991 he was awarded the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award for Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times.
That Thomas Hauser has considerable gravitas is an understatement, and it was that same gravitas that apparently resulted in his appointment as consultant to HBO?an entity he had sharply criticized before the appointment?and one for which he himself received harsh criticism from other writers. Many asked: how can you be a true journalist and also a consultant to the industry which you?re covering? Conflicts of interest and commitment are not unethical or impermissible per se. Indeed, there are conflicts of interest in many facets of boxing writing these days (such as Ring Magazine being owned by Golden Boy Promotions), and not all conflicts are created equal, but this one seemed to be a particularly noxious one.
BWAA
?These days, with most writers who regularly cover fights working on websites that pay starvation rates, too many have to do it as a hobby, or for the insider thrill of being at ringside. The result is that too often they write not like professionals but like fans or volunteer publicists.??Carlo Rotella
For many years, Hauser?s name was synonymous with the BWAA and he was the chairman of the organization?s important membership committee. Presumably, he had great influence over who got in and who stayed out and, by extension, those who ended up voting for nominees to the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF).
Key Point
Given the fact Hauser also writes for Ring Magazine (which has mostly BWAA members doing its writing), and at least three online boxing sites (The Sweet Science, Boxing Scene, and SecondsOut.com), there manifestly is a built-in and/or structural conflict. How could he or anyone else who works for an online boxing site rule fairly on the admission of an applicant who works for a rival site or what?s worse, an applicant who works for one of the three sites for which Hauser works?
After rumors of an in-house squabble a while back, Hauser stepped down as Chairman and was replaced Don Steinberg who in turn was recently replaced by Cliff Rold, but Hauser remains an influential member of the Committee (even though he symbolically became?or maybe was asked to become?an auxiliary member). Amazingly, however, Rold (whose work I follow and admire and who also is one of the founders of the new Transnational Boxing Rankings which I support) is employed by a well-known boxing site for which Hauser also writes so the appearance (if not the post facto reality) of a conflict has not been removed.
IBHOF
?There?s easier access today to the global scene of boxing, through the internet, and when more information is provided to you more easily, it makes you more knowledgeable about what you?re researching.??Ed Brophy, IBHOF
?There?s no doubt that becoming a historian is certainly the most time consuming thing. If done well I think one can become [one but] you must read incessantly. You have to analyze. It?s a bit of a compulsion???Herb Goldman
Among other privileges, ?Full? members of the BWAA can vote in BWAA elections and also vote for nominees to the IBHOF. The later privilege is an important and coveted one. Thus the dots connecting the two organizations are more like a short and solid line, but why the IBHOF relies on the BWAA almost exclusively is anyone?s guess.
Many of the BWAA members are fine writers and historians (though some of the more established ones rarely write anymore) but others may lack the experience or credentials to render a well-considered selection for voting for a nomination. And yes, I fully realize that with the advent of the internet, BoxRec, video footage via YouTube, and the ease of electronic communications to various sources, the ability to research has been turbo-charged. Online writers can now feast upon the rich global buffet that the internet offers?some can even learn that the great Tony DeMarco did not lose to the late Edwin Valero.
But even with the internet, can a young writer capture the context in which certain eras of boxing were played out? Can he or she capture the concept of ?back in the day? (the ?40s, ?50s, and 60s) without having experienced it? Do they know what it?s like to wake up on a brisk autumn morning to the waft of burning leaves hinting strongly that football season is here? Do they recall the smell of freshly brewed coffee, equally fresh bread and sizzling bacon in the kitchen? More to the point, can they remember being greeted by a marvelous alchemy when they ventured to Marigold Gardens, St. Nicholas Arena, or the Blue Horizon to catch a boxing card?an alchemy formed when cloying perfume clashed with the heavy scent of cheap aftershave (maybe Mennen or Old Spice) which in turn blended in with the seductive odor of even cheaper cigars? Also in the mix were Vienna hot dogs (the best in the world) topped with tangy yellow mustard (no Grey Poupon here) and plenty of chopped onions. Finally, fresh roasted peanuts, buttered popcorn, steamy coffee, and slushy, foamy Meister Brau or Schaefer?s beer completed the deal. Hell, I?m just not sure that some of the younger members of the BWAA even know what I?m talking about here.
Connections
Thus we have the esteemed and highly influential Hauser working directly for at least three online boxing sites and GBP-owned Ring Magazine while consulting for HBO and also belonging to the seven-member Membership Committee of the BWAA, the full members of whom influence mightily who gets into the IBHOF.
Questions
?I?m not saying Thomas Hauser, Dan Rafael, members of The Ring Magazine and Thomas Gerbasi are not good writers. They are excellent writers, who I follow regularly. But if the stated goal of the BWAA is to foster the highest professional and ethical standards in boxing journalism, once full-fledged members start working for a promoter or a major power player in the sport, they should either remove themselves from the BWAA, or at the very least, become auxiliary members. Their ability to remain objective becomes compromised.??William Holmes, BWAA Conflicts Abound: Thomas Hauser and His Defection to HBO (Boxing Insider, March 2, 2012)
Thomas Hauser is known to ask the tough questions that need to be asked which lead to the answers that we don?t necessarily want to hear. Call it vindictiveness, sour grapes or maybe I?m just plain jealous, but now that I approach the twilight stages of my writing endeavors (at least boxing ones), I believe it?s time to raise some questions about the BWAA and related dotted and solid line connections.
First, does Hauser have disproportionate influence and leverage in the BWAA and especially on the Admission Committee? Is so, should he step down from that role?
Second, given his consulting role at HBO, should he even be a member of the BWAA?
Third, are applicants for the BWAA given a fair and especially a thorough adjudication given the post facto (structural) conflicts that seem to exist?
Fourth, if any BWAA member works for a site that is owned by a promoter, should he or she remain a member of the BWAA?
Fifth, is the relationship between the BWAA and the IBHOF too exclusionary?
Teddy Atlas frequently laments during ESPN Friday Night Fights that when a fighter has been given a bad decision, what the judges have done, in addition to depleting that fighter?s spirit and incentive, is to devalue all of the hard preparation and blows absorbed in training. Teddy makes a salient point here and in many ways, the same thing might well be true when worthy applicants who have improved their game try to get into the BWAA but are rejected for reasons perhaps unrelated to that applicant?s credentials.
Maybe the BWAA wants to maintain a certain number of members so that a veneer of professional exclusivity is achieved like the Baseball Writers of America and I understand that. But if so, what they might be getting instead (in my opinion at least) is something that comes off as contrived, obsequious, narcissistic and cliquey.
In the end, when the aging Hauser is inducted into the IBHOF (probably sooner rather than later), all the dots will connect in a great disharmony of conflicted synchronization.
But I won?t be in Canastota to participate in the celebration. I don?t do fawning.
Ted Sares is a private investor who enjoys following and writing about boxing, and considers himself an advocate for reform. A member of the Elite Powerlifting Federation, Ted actively competes in the sport throughout the US and Eastern Canada and holds several state records for his age class.
