After reading this, I'm surprised Flotrack was able to post interviews with athletes at NCAA's
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A reporter was ejected from an NCAA baseball tournament game for submitting live Internet updates during play.
Brian Bennett, a writer for The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal, was approached Sunday by an NCAA representative in the bottom of the fifth inning and told that blogging from an NCAA championship event is against NCAA policies.
Bennett had done live blogging during Louisville's super regional games against Oklahoma State in the previous two games of the three-game series. The representative revoked Bennett's credential Sunday and asked him to leave the game.
"It's clearly a First Amendment issue," said Bennie Ivory, the newspaper's executive editor. "This is part of the evolution of how we present the news to our readers. It's what we did during the Orange Bowl. It's what we did during the NCAA basketball tournament. It's what we do."
The newspaper's lawyer, Jon L. Fleischaker, added: "I think there's the potential for some action. We're still talking about it."
Gene McArtor, a representative of the NCAA baseball committee, declined to comment to the newspaper at the game. The NCAA in Indianapolis did not immediately return a telephone message Monday from The Associated Press.
The newspaper said the university circulated a memo on the issue from Jeramy Michiaels, the NCAA's manager of broadcasting, before the first super regional game Friday. It said blogs are considered a "live representation of the game" and blogs containing action photos or game reports are prohibited until the game is over.
Bennett consulted with his editors and continued to blog, submitting the first report at 4:12 p.m. ET Sunday, the newspaper said.
"It's a real question that we're being deprived of our right to report within the First Amendment from a public facility," Fleischaker said. "Once a player hits a home run, that's a fact. It's on TV. Everybody sees it. [The NCAA] can't copyright that fact."
Louisville won the game 20-2 to advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.