Friday, March 31, 2006

Newspaper photographers maintain access to NFL games

News Blues for TV Insiders, a television business blog, reports that the NFL's new rules prohibiting local television stations from shooting footage from the sidelines at NFL games, will not apply to still photographers, such as those who shoot Kansas City Chiefs games for such southwest Missouri publications as the Springfield News-Leader, Neosho Daily News, and The Carthage Press.
The ban on television photographers was decried by Alicia Wagner Calzada, president of the National Press Photographers Association, according to the blog.
"By denying local television stations access to the sidelines," Ms. Calzada said, "they are in essence denying the viewers in the area the type of sports coverage to which they have become accustomed. The bottom line is, it's not the photographers who suffer from this decision but the local viewer, a move that could ultimately backfire by alienating the very people the sports franchise depends on for financial support: the sports fan."

No comments: