Louisville Courier-Journal v. NCAA

But that wasn't on the original form for credentials, nor was it ever brought up. If you signed something for your credential, and then they change rules midstream when anyone in the crowd can do the same thing, that's questionable.

 

http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/bennett/2007/06/ejected-and-dejected.html#comments

http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/bennett/2007/06/last-entry.html#comments

http://louisville.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=2490&tid=95663193&mid=95663193&sid=923&style=2

http://sebaseball.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=1025&tid=95663657&mid=95663657&sid=1048&style=2

 

I'm with you, ijag. And if the credential wording was different at different sites -- I can personally attest to that -- that's an issue. Misapplication of this will be the NCAA's biggest at-fault issue.

If they gather us all around Thursday at Omaha and say "Blog and Die", then we'll all know that if we blog, we get kicked out, whether we like it or not. But since that speech was given to varying degrees -- or mostly, none at all -- this weekend, the NCAA is clearly in the wrong here.

As for whether the NCAA is wrong in the merit of its argument, hell yes, it is. Reporters' blogs IN NO WAY detract from people watching ESPN, listening on networks, following on gametracker, etc.

In the newfound age of the 24/7 news cycle, where (especially at my shop) we are putting things online as news stories as they happen, where do you draw the line? Does the NCAA say the only time newspapers can report on things is when the dead trees hit the driveway in the morning? Does the NCAA say papers' Web sites must wait 15 minutes after games are over to report what simply happened? Does it say anything in between? Do we care?

And then this: Let's say something happens within a game that becomes news itself, and you work for an organization dedicated to breaking news online. Player X breaks school's all-time hits record, attendance record broken -- you get the gist. Is it not "permitted" to be reported by reputable news outlets until the umpire calls the final out?

If you side with the NCAA on these questions, I hope you have a hefty supply of Unisom on hand so that you may sleep tonight.

 

Hate to see this happen to Brian. As mentioned previously, he's a class guy and a strong reporter. Hopefully, he'll still be able to go to Rosenblatt.

What's the difference between this and live blogging during the NCAA basketball tournament, which Brian did as well?

 

or... if every reporter accepts the credential, goes up to the press box before the first game, then walks out en masse prior to it... they are left with no one to promote their product except for ESPN... Not that every, let alone any, would do that...

 

If you put sports on radio ... [/powers-that-be, 1920s]

If you put sports on TV ... [/powers-that-be, 1950s]

If you put sports on the Internet, it will detract from the live event and people won't pay attention/show up/give us money/grab their ankles. [/powers-that-be, 2000s]

Go fuck yourself, NCAA.

 

Of course, what isn't mentioned in all of this is the C-J is a bunch of bandwagon jumpers who never consistently covered U of L baseball until the NCAA Tournament. Bennett admits as much in the blog.

 

What does that have to do with anything?

 

And how different is that than most college baseball in big cities?

 

The NCAA should embrace any coverage it can get of college baseball. The last thing they should be doing is kicking any reporter out the press box, especially for something as trivial as this. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming days.

 

After reading this thread and reading the NFL story on the front page, I wonder if this is a burgeoning Supreme Court battle.
In other words, who has more rights?
Is it the newspaper and their freedom to report? Or is it the league/organization who has a vested interest in getting people to their websites or not having their coverage usurped. Newspapers obviously have a similarly vested interest in getting people to their websites.
So I wonder who wins out in this case?