You will be shocked, shocked to learn that the Big Ten Network has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the O’Bannon case supporting the NCAA’s assertion that if players are paid, the news is doomed.
Tremble as you read this:
“The right of a television network or newspaper to televise or report on matters of public interest — whether a basketball game, a parade, a natural disaster, a march on Washington, or a government shutdown — are fundamental to the existence of a free press,” the broadcasters wrote. “If Plaintiffs are allowed to proceed with their claims in this case, the news media will be substantially constrained from televising and reporting newsworthy events, and the public will be deprived of vital, necessary, constitutionally-protected news reporting.”
Okay, I might be willing to admit that the Big Ten title game was close to a natural disaster… ah, hell, I can’t even work up the energy to do a proper snark here. The Big Ten Network isn’t the news media; it’s an entertainment arm of a large college conference generating significant amounts of revenue that Jim Delany, its programming director, doesn’t want to share with student-athletes.
The attempt to wrap that with a First Amendment bow is nothing more than him pissing down your leg and telling you it’s raining buckets.