So the SEC is telling everyone that they can’t blog, Twitter, Facebook, call their momma or a variety of sundry online rules regarding real-time reporting of any of their sporting events this year.
Wait a second …
Bwhhahhhaaahhhaa.
Man, I am lying in a pool on the floor in laughter with that one.
Michael Silence has the linkage to it all and you can read it for yourself but let’s pull on quote he highlighted.
No Bearer may produce or disseminate in any form a “real-time” description or transmission of the Event in any manner that constitutes, or is intended to provide or is promoted or marketed as, a substitute for television or video coverage of such Event.
Silence goes on to say that this applies to media reps only, but it honesty is designed to scare the public. I would venture to say they don’t care.
As we say here in Hoots, it ain’t gonna happen, Bubba. The reality is that right now, people are posting what they are eating, the birth of their children, how they think ***politician’s name here*** is a dumbass, how great/horrible True Blood is and the list goes on.
Love it or hate these things, it really doesn’t matter because a lot of people love it and they want to use it to tell the world what they are going through, to converse and to communicate. It’s digital communion, for lack of a better word.
There is no regulating conversation. I have sat at UT games and called my family as big stuff was happening or my team was dying in their own fluids. Of course, this stuff isn’t archived online for a jallion years either but the thing that amazes me is that the SEC is showing fear that they can’t control their own message.
Is the SEC going to monitor every message out there? I assume that they will make a few cases against folks to drive home their point, but the reality is with cell phones sitting in games, the excitement will weigh heavier than getting a pat on the wrist. Yeah, the NFL has made some rules to players about not twittering practices and the like, but when you get down to it, it’s like doing an intoximeter test for marijuana.
There isn’t really way to gauge how much stuff the driver has smoked, which in itself is a whole ‘nother ballgame, campers. Same thing with this rule. If, let’s say 100,000 fans at Neyland post on Facebook about a sack or a touchdown, whose going to monitor that?
The SEC is proving they know nothing about how fans respond to their team. They wouldn’t be paying for tickets, paying for parking, buying concessions and sitting in abysmal weather at times if they didn’t. You cannot moderate joy and loyalty. If people want to talk about this, they will.
That simple.
Other folks have written more eloquently than I can about this, but one thing I do know is this: You go pissing off fans who want to show their pics on Facebook or banter with their buddies on Twitter, they are going to remember.
And they will. Count on it.
One final thought, it slays me when some organizations bitch about Twitter and then ask us to follow them, but that’s another story for another day.
This reminds me of the time the NCAA threw a journalist blogger out of the press box for blogging, but dumber because the SEC saw the reaction the NCAA got for this, decided they could weather the storm, and did the same stupid shit.
Not certain who said this, but somehow it applies: ” Not every one can learn from other peoples’ mistakes. Some of us have to be the other people.”
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