MLB Follows NFL In Restricting How Reporters Can Report On Games Online
from the who-puts-up-with-this-stuff? dept
Brian writes in to let us know that Major League Baseball seems to be following the NFL's rules on how reporters are allowed to report on games. In the MLB's case, reporters can only post short video clips, can't post more than 7 photos per game and all non-text content must be removed after 72 hours. It's fairly amazing that news organizations agree to put up with these restrictions. The fact that news organizations caved into the NFL is what has allowed MLB to go down a similar path. Again, MLB has every right to set the terms by which it gives out press passes, but news organizations should push back against these policies, potentially buying tickets themselves, rather than getting team-approved press passes. It's also not at all clear why a news report shouldn't be allowed to post as many photos as they want on their site, or why they shouldn't be able to leave them online for more than a few days.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
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joy
Welcome to 2008.
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Right Idea
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Another plan
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Why do they do this...
Do they sell them on their own sites or something?
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What about the fans
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Don't cover it
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I started my own personal sports media blackout...
I woke one day and realized that it was all very un-entertaining entertainment overloaded with advertising and lowest common denominator puffery, and there were much, much more interesting things to do with my leisure time.
Now if I could just come up with a way to block them completely out of all my news spaces, I'd be uber happy.
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Agree with post #2
Ten years from now they'll be whining that no-one cares about the sport because no reporters are reporting on it anymore.
Maybe these organizations should read Tech Dirt's articles about "free": maybe if reporters posted free pictures of the games, the teams would get more publicity, and more people would *buy* tickets and support the sport.
Nah, that'll never work.
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(FYI = I also put a patent on putting a patent)
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Wake up n smell the coffe
Now they want control over the dissemination of facts.
And they wonder why attendance is down, go figure.
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Re: Wake up n smell the coffe
As much as I dislike MLB's actions, the statement above is not true.
They've set records for attendance 4 straight years:
http://washingtontimes.com/article/20070925/SPORTS/109250082/1005
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Re: Re: Wake up n smell the coffe
MLB has higher attendance this year because they increased the total number of games played ?
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Re: Wake up n smell the coffe
Sorry to do this, but they didn't have a grilled cheese sandwich for me at the Coffee place in Florida, and the coffee they had wasn't in a fountain. (Those Bastards!) I am still searching.
Are you still sending that sammich to me?
-J.P. DeLeon
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pshaw
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Only Legal MLB Coverage
http://playersearch.com/Search.aspx?q=Roger%20Clemens
Ted
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Don't watch MLB
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RE: the inquiry from our foreign anonymous coward
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One more vote for no coverage
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