Golf scores, bloggers -- and the First Amendment

The free-speech clash between bloggers and corporate profits isn't new. It often erupts in the sports industry, over publishing game scores as they happen. But the issue applies equally in other industries -- and in Gannett's ban on live-blogging during the annual shareholders meeting, April 30.

In 2004, for example, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that PGA officials could prevent reporters from immediately posting golfers' scores. It was a victory for the golf association -- but a loss for the broader public, a leading First Amendment advocate wrote at the time. "The decision suggests that courts may be so determined to protect profits that they're willing to shortchange both the press and the public,'' he wrote. "Sports results are news, part of the free flow of information guaranteed under the free-press clause of the First Amendment."

If sports results are news, shareholder voting results are news, too. (To learn more about that high-profile First Amendment advocate, and to read the rest of his excellent column, go here.)