March 14, 2014
Journalist Jon Friedman offers his views on why CrossFit has become an easy target for media criticism.
Throughout history, there is one other constant in addition to the inevitability of death and taxes: It is the principle that the media love to build you up and then knock you down. You can chalk it up to the price of success.
This syndrome affects politicians, rock ’n’ roll stars, athletes, movie icons and, yes, fitness companies. It is not as if there is a conspiracy in the media to single out CrossFit and pounce on it. This is a fact of life.
When you stay under the radar, you tend to be ignored. But when you succeed beyond people’s initial expectations, and when you have more than 9,000 affiliated gyms scattered around the world, you’re bound to get targeted.
Is it fair? Not always. It is deserved? Not always. Is it inevitable? You betcha.
You could suggest it’s more a media problem than a CrossFit problem.
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2 Comments on “Success and the Bull’s Eye”
1
Chris Sinagoga wrote …
Nice article Jon. I liked your point "when you have 9,000 affiliates scattered across the globe" or whatever. I kinda woulda liked to see you add more sarcasm like that haha. Obviously, that's just the style of writing I like. Good job though.
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wrote …
The media criticism of Crossfit as a whole is based on the fact that there is no national, corporate advertising budget. If HQ started spending millions on advertising campaigns, all the "hit pieces" would suddenly become "puff pieces." If you want an example, look at the current target of HQ's ire, Gatorade (Quaker Oats)... There is a story there, but it will offend a corporation that has advertising budget of $10million+. Prior to the Games being on ESPN, Kyle Maynard was featured on an hour long special and the word "Crossfit" was never mentioned.. It referenced that he owned a gym but not what kind. Now that ESPN has a relationship (makes money with) Crossfit, the editing of that show might be different.
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