What game has odds like 1,200 to 29? See below

For a couple of years now, I've been cautioning sportswriter wannabes in my news writing classes that the "pro/am" trend in journalism itself might affect the future of their intended profession.

"If anyone can go to a game, blog a play-by-play account, and upload pictures and stats from a cell phone," I suggested, "how many news organizations will continue to shell out money for the same old sports journalism?" The same goes for Monday-morning quarterbacking in print.

Perhaps "professional sportswriting" might shrink down to things like sports as celebrity gossip, sports as business reporting, sports as marketing, and sports as a crime-and-corruption beat. (Or has it already?)

But maybe there's some reason for optimism in the latest attempt by a sports organization to control the media -- if sports organizations try enforcing a "no blogs" policy to protect their franchises from "unauthorized" reporting like this week's flap about Brian Bennett's NCAA baseball blog.

The irony: Bennett is a professional sportswriter -- for The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal. Here's the story:

Newspaper Blogger Ejected from NCAA Game
AP via Business Week and ESPN

Bennie Ivory, the newspaper's executive editor, told AP the paper blogged the Orange Bowl and the NCAA basketball tournament and considered Bennett's blog ban a First Amendment issue.

Lucy Dagleish, executive director of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, gave USA Today (NCAA criticized for ejecting reporter...) a different take:

"This is appalling, but in no way am I surprised... The television networks pay a lot of money for the rights to live reporting, and the NCAA makes a whale of a lot of money. This is all about money and not about the First Amendment."

The New York Times reported Bloggers Ejection May Mean Suit for NCAA, quoting Northwestern University new media journalism prof Rich Gordon:

"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."

This Courier Journal column agreed: NCAA Showed What It's About - Cash and Control.

Knoxville News Sentinel blogger Michael Silence said, "What next, are they going to confiscate cell phones?" He also collected plenty of links, plus a statement from the Media Bloggers Association. In fact, a Google search for "blogger bennett ncaa" was producing more than 100,000 hits after just a couple of days.

Searching for "live blogging" and "sports" yielded more than a half-million hits. This one won't go away in a hurry.

Watchdog alternative: Thinking outside the (press) box

If this case or one like it ever leads to an "anyone can blog from the bleachers" ruling, maybe journalism professors can convince wannabe sportswriters to think about "watchdog journalism" as a more important sport.

They could trade their dreams of the press box and locker room for the press room (or the bleachers) at City Hall or the Statehouse... investigate investigative reporting... learn to ask more questions... put those batting-average statistics skills to work on campaign finance numbers or the stories buried in other public records... in short, write about civic affairs.

Whether they do that for a living or as a citizen journalist, they can go write sports blogs on their days off. (They'll have company. That last link goes to the 1.2 million Google hits on the phrase "sports blog." In comparison, a search for "watchdog journalism" gets 29,000.)

Note: The Google-zeitgeist statistics scattered throughout this essay are in no way scientific or precise. I am ashamed of using them just to grab your attention, but intrigued by the possibility that they might mean something. If I were doing this as a paid journalist with an editor looking over my shoulder, I'd try to find an expert with some better numbers. Honest.

3:57:02 PM  #