The following is an except from an article that ran last week in the Toledo Free Press:
Bloggers denied entrance to media paradise
By Matt Sussman
3/9/2007
To a sports blogger, a media credential for an important sporting event is akin to either King Arthur finding the Holy Grail or Harold and Kumar arriving at White Castle. It’s the universal sign of legitimacy. So as the Mid-American Conference basketball tournament approached, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to provide my own perspective on this past week’s MAC action the only way I know how — through puns, typos and third-grade jokes.
A few weeks ago I contacted the conference requesting the oh-so-illustrious press pass, outlining my writing portfolio and that my content would be for my own sports blog. A few days later I was formally denied entry as a journalist. After pleading my case one more time, the director of media relations said that his credential committee would meet the next day and then follow up with me. Whether the former actually happened is beyond me because I know the latter did not.
This also happened with another writer who contributed articles at my other online sports playpen, Blogcritics Sports. He was denied entry into a Columbus Blue Jackets press box. The same pattern occurred: after being denied credentials, I made my case, the media relations director said they were meeting soon about this very subject and would let me know what they said, and lastly we never heard from them again.
Not all sports entities are this way. The Mud Hens and Storm were very kind to me by letting me in, likely because they never read my articles.
We as Internet typists understand the need for the teams to establish guidelines on determining which online media outlets, blogs included, are credential-worthy. So we’ll let them do that.
Matt Sussman operates the sports blog www.thefutonreport.net
To read the full article, click here.