The Media Drop

ESPN.com just published an AP story about a writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal who was thrown out of Louisville’s game against Oklahoma State on Sunday. It seems that Brian Bennett was liveblogging the event on behalf of the newspaper, a no-no the association thought it had ruled out. The NCAA contends that this was a “live representation,” otherwise known as one of those things you hear about towards the end of a game broadcast stating that you have to ask permission to do it.

This article from The National Law Journal circa 2005 gives some of the details on how things were changing at that time in the sports media space, and it’s important to keep in mind that the ability to transfer news, photos and other sports-related data, on the fly, has become significantly easier by now. Unfortunately, the tossing of this journalist-blogger means that the “rights” given to a member of the media who is in attendance of a live sporting event might need to be a little bit more closely worded, and less about the publication or writer asking for a credential, getting it, showing up and writing / broadcasting about it *later*. In a world where broadcasting rights are costing a pretty penny, especially for professional sports leagues (Google for the NFL contract if you’re curious), it’s not surprising that the NCAA is taking this particular tack. Either someone threw a fit after it had gone on over the previous couple of days, or the NCAA had a different level of understanding of what could (or would, even) be done at any of its events.

I’m sure this isn’t the first time this has happened in some fashion, and it won’t be the last. I can make my Website run like a newspaper, and not look like a blog, and “live blog” by publishing inning-by-inning reports, and they might have a hard time saying that I can’t “blog” from the event, and then throw me out. Well, actually, I’d get thrown out, but the lines are so blurry that you’d have a solid argument to get back in. If we’d start talking about the method of transmission or my ability to have content published while the event was going on, that would have covered the backside of the NCAA. But they went the “blog” route, and perhaps that’s what caused this to be tossed around as a “First Amendment” rights issue, or so the newspaper’s legal representation is saying.