Should Bloggers Have Limits On How They Cover Sports?
Should bloggers have limits on how they cover sports?
Apparently, many sport organizations think so. The New York Times has posted a piece today on the Tension Over Sports Blogging.
Sports franchises are beginning to recognize blogging as a form of legitimate media. The New York Times piece includes the rules pertaining to bloggers (and other forms of media) from the following sports organizations:
- National Basketball Association - Bloggers from credentialed news organizations must be admitted to locker rooms.
- Major League Baseball - Limits the number of photographs, audio, and video clips to a reasonable number.
- National Football League - Limits audio and video clips to 45 seconds.
According to The New York Times piece, The National Collegiate Athletic Association also has publication limits for various sports. (Personally, I couldn’t find the limitations - but I also didn’t spend a lot of time on the site.)
Here at Business and Blogging, we’ve posted about sports blogging before. In that post, we discussed the fact that many football teams have their own official blog.
The issues raised by The New York Times post are a little bit different. They don’t deal with whether or not a sports team should have a blog, but rather with the very nature of blogging itself.
Some of the questions the post raises include:
- What is a blog? Is it a news source? Is it editorial in nature?
- Should blogs in the U.S. be subject to first amendment protection?
- Should sports organizations be allowed to place limitation on the coverage of games and competition?
- Should bloggers have equal access to press conferences and events with traditional journalists?
I have my own answers to these questions, of course. What I’m interested in now, however, is your opinion.
How would you answer these questions?
Image source: www.sxc.hu
2 opinions for Should Bloggers Have Limits On How They Cover Sports?
Vivienne Quek
Apr 24, 2008 at 9:45 am
Blogs are supposedly electronic diaries so bloggers believe that they can air their views anyway they like. Sure, however, they must stand by what they’ve said and face the consequences come what may.
Laura Spencer
Apr 25, 2008 at 10:48 am
Thanks Vivienne!
I’m sure there are a lot of bloggers who don’t know the limits.
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