Journalist gets thrown out of College World Series tournament for blogging

[RagingInMiami]

Because the NCAA believed he violated their right to be the sole broadcasters of the baseball tournament. From the Louisiville Courier-Journal website:

About an hour before Friday's first game, the NCAA sent U of L a memo and had it circulated through the press box. The memo said that no one would be allowed to blog during the games, which came as a pretty big surprise since I blogged throughout the Columbia Regional (and saw at least three other media representatives doing the same) and no one said a peep. Also, this restriction was not included on our credentials, and we never signed anything agreeing to this limitation.

Here's an excerpt from that memo:

"The College World Series Media Coordination staff along with the NCAA Broadcasting group needs to remind all media coordinators that any statistical or other live representation of the Super Regional games falls under the exclusive broadcasting and Internet rights granted to the NCAA's official rights holders and therefore is not allowed by any other entity. Since blogs are considered a live representation of the game, any blog that has action photos or game reports, including play-by-play, scores or any in-game updates, is specifically prohibited. In essence, no blog entries are permitted between the first pitch and the final out of each game."

In other words, don't blog because other people paid for the right to broadcast the games.

http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/bennett/blog.html

[InternalDialogue]

1. Corporate control

Certainly, the NCAA broadcasters want press coverage. They even mandate press appearances for coaches and sometimes players (player access may be different than for professionals, I'm not sure).

But they ban blogging, because it's "live" coverage?

I'm going to split hairs to make my point. Would the NCAA allow a reporter who was unable to view the entire game file a story with his service or paper in the middle of the game?

It's just a matter of degree from that to what bloggers do, which is file a series of stories during a game.

There are more hairs to split -- do they allow reporters to use cell phones to call their sports desk? Do they censor any game information the reporter passes along?

What about fans -- when they call a buddy to say, "This game is awesome! Tied 2-2 in the fifth and there have been six double plays!" is it "broadcasting" if their buddy then puts that information on his blog?

I respect the broadcaster's right to own their broadcast -- the images, sound, and commentary made by their equipment, their reporters, and their producers. But if the games are open to the public, then the "in-game updates" are public information, and that information is fair game for dissemination by any number of alternative methods.

[KharmaTrain]

2. Don't Mess With The Money

I used to have to coordinate sports broadcasts and secure rights for games...it was amazing how petty and stupid Atheltic Directors were in dealing with the media. A good bet was the local radio station that broadcast games complained about the blogger (that's another mess...radio hates bloggers almost as much as the Washington media elite does) and how the live blogging was probably drawing more attention than the live radio broadcast. The difference is the radio station paid the university or the NCAA for the "live" rights were the blogger didn't. And what isn't mentioned here is what blog he was with...and if he was getting paid or if the blog was profiting from the live blogging.