Media take advantage of Cedric McMillan’s death to expose bodybuilding
The bodybuilding world is still in shock with the death of bodybuilding champion, Cedric McMillan. Unfortunately, this did not stop the “mainstream” media from taking advantage of this situation.
Former Arnold Classic winner, Cedric McMillan, has unfortunately passed away suddenly at the young age of 44.
The official cause of death is still unknown, with a number of bodybuilding media channels alleging Cedric’s death was due to a heart attack, a heart attack while doing cardio or due to the “C-virus”.
It’s no secret that Cedric was having some serious health problems in the last couple of years, but he is human just like everybody else, regardless if he was a bodybuilder or not.
Since the sport of bodybuilding was created, the bodybuilding industry, especially in the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s have been desperate to get positive coverage on the “mainstream” media networks.
“Mainstream” outlets are companies such as CNN, ABC, NBC, Sky, Daily Mail, FOX, The Sun, TMZ, The Independent and may more international media outlets that report the news in general.
The majority of the mentioned news outlets made the connection with Arnold Schwarzenegger and knew immediately this news item would get them fantastic traffic and readership.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was a big fan of Cedric McMillan and there is a wealth of footgate with Cedric and Arnold at the 2017 Arnold Classic that Cedric won.
This is not the promotion that the bodybuilding industry needs from the general media. Bodybuilding does not deserve this negativity.
Promoting bodybuilding in all the wrong ways
The death of Cedric McMillan revealed what is wrong with the “mainstream” media and how it covers the sport of bodybuilding.
In regards to the “mainstream” media, we can go back a couple of years when Dallas McCarver passed away, the only major coverage we saw was thanks to the bodybuilding media.
Fast forward a few years and Luke Sandoe, 2018 Mr. Olympia Shawn Rhoden, George Peterson, and now Cedric McMillan passed away.
The ‘mainstream’ media, totally ignored the athletes mentioned, but they singled out Cedric McMillan, again, because of the connection with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not even 2018 Mr. Olympia Shawn Rhoden was given this coverage.
What is really disappointing in the reports by the majority of the “mainstream” media, is that they only report the negative side of the sport.
Cedric might have died due to complications from Covid-19… but he took steroids, that is what was reported. Cedric’s death was also an outlet for some of the media that are against the “C-virus”, to expose it.
When reading the reports from the “mainstream’ media, the majority of the reports did not even cover Cedric’s incredible career and his accomplishments. The articles where always connected to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Death and Arnold are the perfect combination for more clicks and traffic to a website.
This is not what the bodybuilding industry needs, the “mainstream” media needs to promote bodybuilding in a positive way. We are not saying they have to cover all the events, just maybe four or five major events that take place during the contest season.
How can the “mainstream” media promote bodybuilding in a positive way?
If the “mainstream” media promotes the sport of bodybuilding in a positive way, the sport would definitely excel to new heights.
The owner of Evolutionofbodybuilding.net, worked in the newspaper and publishing business for over 20 years, and in those 20 years, he was in-charge of the sport pages for the newspapers at the company he was employed at.
In that time, it was a priority to promote bodybuilding as much as possible, since we had the platform available to do it.
It was normal on Sunday to see a full page article in color dedicated to local bodybuilding and major international competitions, such as the Arnold Classic and the Mr. Olympia. These articles reached an even larger readership when transferred to the newspaper’s website.
This job was not easy for any journalist, the editorial staff did not agree with bodybuilding getting so much exposure in the newspaper, but the battle was won.
Projecting bodybuilding in a positive way, helped the sport reach more people as many could read about the sport on their daily newspaper.
Gone are the days of reading about bodybuilding only in Flex Magazine or Muscle & Fitness. Finally it was on “mainstream” media… at least in the country were these newspapers were being published, it was being promoted.
What if CNN, ABC, NBC, Sky, Daily Mail, FOX, The Sun, TMZ, The Independent and the rest of the “mainstream” media covered the Mr. Olympia or the Arnold Classic.
These two events alone, would surely attract the attention of the readers of all the media mentioned in this article.
On print, if just a small teaser was published on the front page of the newspaper, this would immediately attract the interest of the reader to read the sports section and the article dedicated to bodybuilding.
Not much effort is required from the “mainstream” media to cover bodybuilding, there are hundreds of websites dedicated to bodybuilding where they can get the information from. The majority of bodybuilding media will not disagree with the “mainstream” media using their material, we are sure they will be happy if they are credited in the article published in “mainstream” media.
The majority of “mainstream” media have huge budgets and they pay contributors and freelance journalists all over the world. What is stopping them for paying a journalist to cover three or four major events? This would surely not hurt the “mainstream” media financially, but it would help the bodybuilding industry in a big way.
Stop mentioning PED’s when a bodybuilder dies
The top bodybuilders in the world, live a strict life of diet, training and they do take PED’s. We cannot deny this, it is impossible to build such a massive physique.
The smart bodybuilder does not stay “on” all year, many stop using PED’s in the off-season. This gives their body a chance to recuperate and get back to normal.
Regardless of what the bodybuilder does or does not do, bodybuilding is not the only sport that use PED’s to help the athlete.
The combination of a strict diet and heavy training might help the bodybuilder to use the potential of PED’s to its fullest. Unfortunately, all the positive effects from the use of PED’s are evident on the bodybuilder, and he or she has to walk around everywhere with its baggage.
What about all the other sports that the “mainstream” media covers? Cycling, football, baseball, swimming, athletics, weightlifting, and hundreds of other sport disciplines all have been reported to use PED’s.
What is strange is that if an athlete unfortunately passes away from any sport other than bodybuilding, rarely does the “mainstream” media mention the use of PED’s.
Conclusion
The “mainstream” media is promoting the sport of bodybuilding in all the bad ways. This must stop and it must be on a positive note in the the immediate future.
We are not saying that the “mainstream” media does not report the death of a bodybuilder or a tragedy, but the the same time, they must have articles that celebrated the victories of the athlete that passed away.
Please let the positivity dominate the negativity.
