Louisville Courier-Journal v. NCAA

Golf Week was blogging throughout the NCAA Division I golf championships (men and women).

 

Wow. Had no idea ths had happened.

It does seem a case of selective enforcement, especially since there was no restrictions on blogging stated in the press pass request form.

So how did people get away with it at the NCAA hoops tournament, etc.

And sportspredictor, it's not about where we can work. It's about people telling us HOW we can we can work. Of course we can find a wireless network, maybe, and blog. But for someone to tell me how I can do my job, especialy since I've done it that way before, is bullshit.

What if there was a slight rain yesterday, was Bennett supposed to sit out in the rain and work on his computer?

It's like at the state track meet where you're told where you can stand to take pics or grab athletes. They're just trying to control everything. That and kissing the ass of the WWL.

I haven't read all three pages, but has anyone else had prblems blogging from the pressbox and ruining the integrity of broadcasting a live event?

 

Agree with that. But again, if what he's writing is so important, he can find a way to get the story (or blog in this case) filed and then fight the powers that be.

Let's face it -- sports teams have provided press boxes all along because it was in their best interests. Why would you expect them to continue to provide such things if it is no longer in their best interests?

 

fuckabunchaNCAA

 

Norrin Radd,

ECrawford wasn't responding to you with with the "question commitment" remark; he was referring to occasionally, who seems to have a personal rule that if you don't staff someone 100 percent of the time during the regular season, you shouldn't act like you care about them in the postseason.

Obviously the dude hasn't been around preps because not only is it commonplace on that level, it's considered the norm for sports like wrestling, tennis, golf, etc.

Or maybe he doesn't understand that Football/Baseball/Recruiting is Bennett's primary beat, not a college baseball team that routinely drew less than some high school soccer or prep girls' basketball games in these parts.

Or maybe he's just a jackass.

 

Was he wearing a UK jersey? That would have been priceless.

 

I doubt anyone except our industry would be on our sides. Peeople would just be pissed there was no coverage. Go look at the comments on the CJ.

 

The latest battle with the NCAA seems to be an extension of battles on other fronts in the world of sports over the years.

The PGA Tour at one time tried to assert that the results (specifically the scores in relation to par) were their property while a tournament was in progress and could not be reported online in live time.

I believe MLB has been in a tussle or two of late with companies offering fantasy baseball stats, with the MLBPA also getting involved. The players association doesn't like that the names of their members are being used -- at one point Barry Bonds was the last holdout on granting permission for the use of his name.

I believe MLB asserted at one point that they owned the rights to all statistics generated from games. I found that laughable since there is a limited set of numbers available in the world (zero through nine), so copyrighting their various combinations is preposterous. It's like someone suing songwriters who use the notes of the musical scale -- do, ra, me, fa, so . . .

One other issue that comes into play with regards to the latest NCAA power play is that high school associations tried following the (failed) lead of the LPGA in recent years by placing big restrictions on photography at championship sites. New York's H.S. association hit fotogs with it on opening day of the 2006 state semifinals, and the issue reared its head in Louisiana and Wisconsin this winter.

The Associations are selling the rights to individuals or companies who want to sell images to the public for $20 or $30 a pop, something that many newspapers already routinely do through Pictopia or their own fulfillment process.

In each case -- preps, fantasy sports and the golf tours -- I can understand why they think they need to do this. but I think they all would have dropped the idea had they done a more thoughtful analysis of the effects. I think the latest NCAA move falls under the same heading -- an idea with a very limited amount of merit to it but one that will likely do more damage than good over the course of time if they continue to enforce it.

 

I doubt we're seeing the start of the end of the pressbox. My whole point is organizations telling us how we can work. It is just like the state HS associations and the photo question that has been discussed on here.

And what is to stop a reporter from calling into his paper and have someone blog with no name on it. Just the CJ's blog? Are tey going to kick out all three reporters. What is a photog is calling it in.

Is reporting on an event going to turn into a cat and mouse, catch me if you can game?

 

I'm somewhat involved in this ... Here's the lowdown from my vantage point.

This is an ESPN powerplay. The mouse has the broadcast rights and bitched to the NCAA about blogging taking away from their exclusivity.

The NCAA, despite needing additional exposure for a growing sport, buckled. In fact, they turned on the people who have covered them all season in favor of ESPN, who showed one regular season baseball telecast. But they bought the rights ... money talks, might makes right, etc.

Why ESPN chose college baseball to crack down on this when thousands of newspapers and web sites live blog football and some basketball, I have no idea.

It should be an interesting week in Omaha - with this popping up and Ron Polk blasting the NCAA folks at every turn.

 

Yeah, I'm with DanOregon, and it seems Major Batman has some of the information I'm looking for. I wondered what exactly ESPN managed to weasel into their contract, and if maybe they were letting NCAA do their dirty work.

Legally, I think you'd have to try to define what constitutes a broadcast in this age and I'm not sure what kind of precedent is out there.