Baseball blogger’s ejection raises loads of legal issues : New York Times

The eviction of a newspaper reporter for blogging a NCCA baseball “has stirred a debate about First Amendment rights, intellectual property rights and contract law,” per the NY Times’ Joe LaPointe.

The newspaper is considering a First Amendment challenge on the basis of the right to free speech as it applies to reporting news in a public place. The question is whether there is enough of a state action, required for suit, in that it was the NCAA who revoked credentials in effect ejecting the reporter from the public stadium.

The NCAA’s position from the Times:

• Not a First Amendment issue in that any challenge based on use of a public facility would be irrelevant because the NCAA rents the facilities for a private event.
• NCAA had a right to protect the contracts it establishes with television networks and its own Internet providers.
• Logical extension of the rights that have been around for years that the NCCA can revoke credentials to events from news organizations that post Internet accounts of their events even by other employees who sit outside the press box or watch it on television outside the stadium.
• Any reference to game action in a blog or other type of coverage could result in revocation of credentials.
• Reporters covering our championships may blog about the atmosphere, crowd and other details during a game but may not mention anything about game action.

Rich Gordon, an associate professor of journalism at Northwestern University and a director of its new media journalism program, sums up the obvious:

This is just the latest skirmish in a longer-term war that will get more contentious.

The law, as happens in many cases, has not kept up with the technology. As a journalist, you’re inclined to wave the First Amendment flag. This is going to get messier before it gets figured out. The media trends are at odds with the leagues’ goal of controlling distribution and extracting a ransom.

Heck, with the ratings NCAA baseball gets, if I were the NCAA and ESPN (pays the NCAA for coverage rights), I’d get all the bloggers I could drawing attention to the games. Pretty unlikely people drawn to the game are going to read live blogs as opposed to watching on TV.

Can’t wait till Bud Selig gets into this with Major League Baseball. He’s more than capable of doing something dumber.

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