Blogger removed from NCAA baseball game for blogging
It appears that college baseball officials may have been taking lessons from the censorship masters in Soviet Russia.
That at least is the sense after a blogger from the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., was expelled from a college playoff game for live-blogging.
According to the Courier-Journal, staff blogger Brian Bennett was approached by NCAA officials in the fifth inning of a game between the University of Lousville and Oklahoma State, told that blogging "from an NCAA championship event 'is against NCAA policies (and) we're revoking the (press) credential and need to ask you to leave the stadium.'"
In its article, the Courier-Journal quoted its executive editor, Bennie Ivory, as saying, "It's clearly a First Amendment issue. This is part of the evolution of how we present the news to our readers. It's what we did during the Orange Bowl. It's what we did during the NCAA basketball tournament. It's what we do."
Indeed, live-blogging has become as much a part of the news reporting landscape as traditional stories. With so much competition around, many publications find that the only way to get a leg up is to report goings-on as events unfold, and technology like Wi-Fi and EV-DO is allowing reporters to get Internet connectivity from almost anywhere.
The Courier-Journal said that the University of Louisville sent out a memo from NCAA manager of broadcasting Jeramy Michiaels, prior to Friday's game. The memo said, in essence, that no blogging was allowed during the game.
But Bennett had not been approached after live-blogging previous games in the playoffs.
It's understandable if sports organizations like the NCAA want to control access to video of their games, but it's hard to see how they can expect news organizations to keep from reporting the news as it happens.
And when they do, it makes them look like they are stuck very, very far in the past.
Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel. 
So, Danny, in the famous words of the Eagles "Get Over It!"
entered into a contract that forces them to prevent others from
reporting live from the game. One would have a hard time
selling broadcast rights if just anybody could blog from a
game... and they do have to draw the line before others start
video blogging. Far from being backwards and old fashioned,
they are forward thinking and understand that they have to draw
the line if they are going to be able to sell broadcast rights.
As far as constitutional rights go, the government can't stop
people from blogging. However, if you want press credentials
from a sports league, you have to abide by their rules even if
they change them and you don't like it.
Now the NCAA is getting in on the act.
You can go to ESPN.com or any number of other web sites and see a near real-time box score for these games. Functionally, that isn't appreciably different from having someone live blog the game. But it's "against NCAA rules"? Please.
What gets me is that these people don't seem to realize that the PR hit that they take from idiocy like this far outweighs the benefit of keeping their product so far behind lock and key that somebody writing about the game in near real-time presents a perceived threat.
- by ncrdbl1 October 20, 2009 1:59 PM PDT
- No big deal here the NCAA owns the rights to the game. The press has no constitutional right to be there unless the NCAA says they can be there or they buy a ticket. If you want to play in the NCAA playground then you play by their rules. Unfortunately the press has become self absorbed to the point where they think they are God almighty himself. Of the bill of rights every one applies to individual rights except one. That is the freedom of the press. Unfortunanately this is the only one that hasn't been stripped away. The press has taken the right to print the news freely and some how changed it to they have the right to do anything they want.
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