NCAA ejects reporter for blogging the game
Cory Bergman June 12th, 2007
The NCAA booted a Courier-Journal writer from a baseball tournament game in Louisville for live-blogging the event. According to its policy, the NCAA maintains blogs are considered a “live representation” of the game. “In a nutshell, we asked the blogger repeatedly not to cover it in that manner, because it violates the policy, and he continued, and his credential was revoked,” said NCAA spokesman Bob Williams. The newspaper is considering legal action. “It’s a real question that we’re being deprived of our right to report within the First Amendment from a public facility,” said Jon L. Fleischaker, the newspaper’s attorney. “Once a player hits a home run, that’s a fact. It’s on TV. Everybody sees it. [The NCAA] can’t copyright that fact.”
Update: Here’s the Courier-Journal’s story with more details. (Thanks Jason!)
Update: And here’s the blog in question along with Bennett’s response. Writes Rob in comments, “Bennett’s blog had snippets of the game, some highlights here and there, but no pictures, no video, nada. Ridiculous.”
15 Comments Add your own
1. Don Day | June 12th, 2007 at 7:57 am
So wait, they kicked him out of a public facility… funded by taxpayer dollars? Sometimes it seems that the NCAA forgets its memeber institutions are state agencies - funded with public money. I love that line: “The NCAA can’t copyright fact,” (though I’m sure they’d love to).
2. Allen | June 12th, 2007 at 7:59 am
Who do they think they are? The NFL?
3. Rob | June 12th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Bennett’s blog had snippets of the game, some highlights here and there, but no pictures, no video, nada. Ridiculous.
One of the commenters on his blog summed things up well for NCAA, MLB, NHL, NBA and our buddies at the NFL:
cell phones, text messaging. this horse is out of the barn NCAA. You are like the record companies.
4. Joel Price | June 12th, 2007 at 9:24 am
#1 - Even if it’s a “public facility” such as a stadium or arena these facilities are being rented out to NCAA. I hear this argument all the time but it doesn’t have any bearing.
If I was the reporter, my defense would be more from a technical standpoint and argue it’s not humanly possible to be “live” blogging. Unless he is a supper fast typist I don’t think he can be doing this in real-time.
5. Clint | June 12th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Apparently Brian only had implied oral consent; not expressed written consent.
6. Jonathan | June 12th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
“”In essence, no blog entries are permitted between the first pitch and the final out of each game,” the memo said.”
And newspapers that print stories before a late game goes final are, what, more privileged?
7. Allen | June 12th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
The Olympics are another bad organization. In the last Olympics we wanted to give some WILLING local Olympians some home video cameras to document their free time. Again, the athletes were excited to do this for us. Not until we bought the cameras and give them out did we find out this is a huge no-no.
8. Safran | June 12th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
I hope you all realize what this means:
From now own, you are not allowed to write anything about a game in progress. You can’t put “Yeah! My team rules!” on your blog until the end of the game. (Or ever, if you’re a Yankees fan.) You can’t IM “Touchdown :)” until the clock runs out. Under this interpretation, you can’t send out an email to a group of friends who are watching the game along with you: “We’re winning! Who’s up for beers afterwards?”
In case anyone thinks college sports are amateur - just see the money. They’re professional, too. We’ve got to stop begging these weasels to let us cover them.
9. Richard | June 12th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
I would assume this restriction is just for credentialed media, correct?
I would think the Louisville newspaper could cough up 12 bucks to buy their blogger a ticket if they wanted to press the point. It would be fun to see how far the NCAA might push it. By fun I mean “litigiously entertaining.”
Thet said, the NCAA, like a lot of organizations, just needs to “let it go…just let it go.”
10. Richard | June 12th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
A stray thought leading to the unrealized fragment of a potentially great idea…
webscorecard.com one of those internet websites…only on this one, a fan could keep a scorecard of the game he/she is watching. And of course that scorecard is viewable by any other fan who wants to see.
MLB…put that in your sanitary sock and pound it.
Feel free to run with it…I’m too busy watching the Giants go down again.
11. Jeff Bailey | June 13th, 2007 at 9:37 am
I agree with Joel in Comment #4 — it’s not live. By the time someone finishes typing a sentence describing a player’s base hit, hits send and waits for the server to respond, that same runner could have stolen second. The hit is now outdated information.
How would they propose to prevent me from “live blogging” while watching the game on TV from the comfort of the newsroom 100 miles away, with juicy “insider” information I got via IM from my sideline/courtside/ringside reporter?
If someone has a no-hitter going in the championship game of the College World Series, is the NCAA saying I can post that information on my news site, but can’t on my blog site? What if I send out a ‘Breaking E-mail Alert’? I type a sentence into a program, I hit send, it goes to a server and is made available to the public. Sounds like the same process for making a blog entry, no?!
12. Chris Weaver | June 13th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
I like the idea of “live blogging” while watching the TV in the newsroom BUT that would violate the copyright of the broadcast.
Blogging what you see in person is different, although I have a feeling what the NCAA is getting at is the ‘broadcast’ of the game(although much slower and less detailed) through a means other than the official Radio and TV broadcast.
Still, it’s nitpicking by the NCAA to worry about it, but maybe they are trying to prevent a precedent.
What if (and this is a stretch for argument’s sake) more people tuned in to the blog of the game instead of, in lieu of or just because they coudln’t watch the game.
That would kill the ratings, make the advertisers mad, and ruin the business model that the NCAA makes a lot of money from.
13. Nico | July 16th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Nice!
14. Kosta | August 6th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Cool…
15. Orion | August 6th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Nice…
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