Pantagraph.com: Newspapers file suit against IHSA. The Illinois Press Association filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Illinois High School Association in an effort to overturn a rule that limits access to school sporting events and the use of photos taken at those events.
Yes, the association’s action is obnoxious. But the best responses would take two forms.
First, temporarily suspend coverage of these high school sports events, or at least selected games, and explain to the readers why. Second, ask fans to take their own pictures and publish them.
Sports are entertainment in modern America, and sports leagues are trying to capitalize on this. But they’d be less successful entertainments without media coverage.
on Nov 2nd, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Dan, if people are asked *nicely* and their help is really appreciated, they may well do it… but the “get the people to take the pictures” phrase doesn’t clarify the approach… D.
on Nov 6th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
I mostly agree, but…
What’s in it for the newspaper if fans published their own photos of a sporting event?
Are you suggesting fans submit the photos to the *paper* for publication in the paper’s print or online edition? Would the fans/stringers be paid for their work?
on Oct 24th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
I know it’s old news, but the above blog post is bad on all fronts. To suggest that photos taken on household cameras from the stands could replace professional photojournalism is ludicrous. Second, to deprive the readers of this coverage to make a point would be short selling the public.
For the most part, these schools are publicly funded including playing fields, uniforms, coaches, equipment, etc. Newspapers have covered them for a century or more. Now that the IHSA sees there might be another dime to squeeze out of the public, they were all over that.
The appropriate thing was done. The press people put their foot down, took it to the proper channels (courts and legislature) and the IHSA backed down. You call it obnoxious. I call it justice.