In an article on disputes between professional sports leagues and the media over sports blogging, The New York Times reports today that, notwithstanding the APSE’s agreement with MLB, other organizations and publications, like Hearst, Gannett, Sports Illustrated and, apparently, The New York Times itself, have continued to protest the MLB’s new rules for credentials. The article did not say whether further negotiations were in store or whether there was any possibility that any reporters or bloggers might be excluded from ballparks as a result of the continuing dispute.
See “Tension Over Sports Blogging,” by Tim Arango.
For some media representatives, the issue of conditions on credentials has First Amendment and antitrust ramifications. According to the Times’ report, Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center, said: “My view is that this is news gathering, and I look for legal responses to any effort to clamp down on news gathering. What I see is a strident effort by a powerful monopoly to control information. They have a monopoly on the game. Now they want to have a monopoly on the information.”
For its part, MLB argues that too much video and audio on a nonaffiliated website could infringe the rights of broadcasters who have paid millions to carry live games, as well as attract traffic away from the lucrative websites run by MLB and its teams. And MLB also disputes the notion that it is poaching on the media’s turf, and not the other way around. As MLB views it, 10 years ago, newspapers and magazines had no more of a stake in the Internet or the world of video and audio than MLB.
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