The Louisville Courier-Journal is reporting today that one of its sportswriters was tossed from the NCAA Super Regional yesterday for blogging during the game.
According to the paper, “U of L circulated a memo on the issue from Jeramy Michiaels, the NCAA’s manager of broadcasting, before Friday’s first super-regional game. It said blogs are considered a “live representation of the game” and that any blog containing action photos or game reports would be prohibited.”
“In essence, no blog entries are permitted between the first pitch and the final out of each game,” the memo said.
This is just beyond stupid. What the NCAA is trying to do is protect its broadcasting partners and defend the rights it has to the broadcasts or representations of its games but that isn’t what this is. If the NCAA honestly believes that anyone who would have watched the game, either on television or at the stadium, is instead consulting a live game blog is simply retarded. No one would rather read a barely real-time blog of a game than attend or watch the game as it unfolds. It just doesn’t make any sense.
I wonder how hard newspapers will fight this. My guess, being a reporter, is that reporters find live blogging at games to be tedious but necessary given the changing face of our business. I wonder if reporters will quietly let live blogging die or stand up for what is clearly a threat to the First Amendment.
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