Off Topic: Aren't Bloggers Media?

The end of the racing season means that it's time to be on the downlow here. But here at VFT1, the winter just doesn't mean that stories about racing will be seen. No, this is when I start something new. I'm going off topic every once in a blue moon with stories that are true and I need to vent about them. (Or if they have some sort of relevance to the author of this blog.)

We'll start with this gem that came up through the internet this weekend:

A (former?) blogger for the NHL's Edmonton Oilers recently had his press credentials yanked from him since he was doing a live blog instead of the real reason as to why he showed up at the game in the first place. He was there to cover the game from the press box collect quotes at the end of the game from the team, but when the PR guys caught him live blogging instead of doing his "job", he was told to cease operations of said live blog.

The guy goes on to explain that the PR guys told him that he was no longer allowed to roam the press box, and that he'd be escorted straight out of the building if he didn't have a job to do. He continues to apologize to the PR guys, and it seemed to head straight downhill from there. The final word was that the Oilers don't like bloggers in their press box and they would not be welcome up there any time soon. The guy who was in dutch to begin with isn't going to be allowed back.

Oh, and if you wanted to know how much press this has gotten, it's gotten quite a lot of responses. For the record, these are all hockey sites. And there are many more where those came from.

I'm not going to point fingers at anyone or anything yet, but I'm guessing that running a live blog for a game is just a quick way of actually covering the game. Heck, my notes (which are for my blog), ultimately led into a helpful tool for the reason as to why I had press credentials at the track this season... Working for Long Island Motorsports. If I ended up buying a laptop before the end of the season, hooking it up to the outlets in the SMS press box, and started to work on my blog instead of an article for the site, would I have gotten my credentials revoked then and there? It goes unanswered until I end up trying something like that. (I probably never will. I'm el cheapo anyway.)

Ah, the joys of having an organization out there that believes that bloggers are just petty and obnoxious. Yeah, right.