From Digg: Courier-Journal field reporter Brian Bennett was kicked out of the stadium in the middle of an NCAA baseball super-regional (the fifth inning, to be exact) for live blogging last Sunday (GMT-4? I’m bad at time zones. Use this instead and look for “America/Louisville”) the high-energy match between University of Lousville and Oklahoma State, KY.
To their defense, the University of Louisville says a note was sent out condemning any “live representation of the game”, under which live blogging the university insists falls under, yet Bennett and his colleagues pushed with it anyway. Bennett’s press treatment therefore was justly sacked as was asked to make an exit from the stadium. (the full text may have read “”Any use of the descriptions and accounts of this game without the express written consent … is strictly prohibited.”)
The readers from the Courier-Journal site seem to think it ridiculous how a third-party publication that’s just been invited to sit in the press box of the event has a case against an exclusive brand such as the NCAA – because the free event was held in a public location. As a blogger, I think otherwise, however.
Inviting the press, knowing very well the only one reason they may want to go is to cover the event, and censoring them from doing so – does NOT make sense at all, especially when the inviting party already admits to giving special press privileges to third-party press and letting them take the press box seats, only to revoke it at a later time. I smell nasty double standards and politicking between the the host school and advertisers hoping to squeeze in product placements between more “official” coverage going on here. Maybe the advertisers were a tad too late to realize how much advertising revenue they’re losing by betting their money on the wrong kind of press. The narrow-minded, non-forward-looking, dinosaur press kind, that is.
If you have any interesting live blogging stories to share, please do so by leaving a comment below, or email me.
Originally posted on June 14, 2007 @ 12:45 pm
