Lot’s of to-do about the whole controversy surrounding Dave Berry’s decision to stop blogging at a very popular Oilers fan site, Covered in Oil.  The long and short of it was- Berry was issued a press pass to gather quotes for a publication other than CiO, he live-blogged the game while he was in the press box, and the Oilers organization proceeded to act like a herd of jackasses in banning him from the box for all time, despite his willingness to take down the post, and other journalists engaging in the same behavior.

Here’s my take.  The Oilers can dump a guy from the box whenever they want, for any reason.  If they didn’t like the content of the live blog (cached copy) then they can kick him out, or decree that Berry isn’t allow to blog for CiO from the box.  Fine.  There are arguments to be made, good ones, that the kind of content in that live blog shouldn’t be allowed.  But those weren’t the reasons given as to why Berry was dropped.  Consequently, the team was blasted all over the place, because that is exactly the kind of thing bloggers do, and frankly, should do.

Note to teams- bloggers aren’t a single, homogenous mass.  Some may want press passes, some not.  And some of those that want them should probably be denied.  The policy as to what is allowed and what isn’t should be clear in advance.  In short- the team might actually have to put some time and effort into deciding who should get a pass.  I have to think about who should be in the press box, WAHHH.  Suck it up, PR departments.  Bloggers ain’t going away.  And if you have a 1980’s era mentality to media coverage, you’re missing out on a lot of great stuff, and at least in my opinion, hurting your franchise.