Indy 500 says no to BLOGS!

I'd like to clear things up a bit about this since I am the blogger that was denied credentials. First of all, I asked Tim Sullivan what the procedures were for applying for credentials for all 3 races this summer. In my blog posting I stated the first thing out of his mouth was that I was too late to apply for month of May activities, which from prior experience I had kind of figured we were either too late or right on the deadline for applying. I simply wanted the procedures for applying for next year's 500, the 2007 US Grand Prix and 2007 Allstate 400 races.

I did not apply late on purpose, this project came about because the video blogger I produce the show with is moving to California in July and so we are covering as many Indianapolis based major events for his entertainment news bits that he does and just last weekend discovered in the decade or so he has lived here he has never attended a race at IMS. This was the primary motivation for inquiring about the procedures for applying in the first place.

Things escalated when Sullivan copped a different tone of voice with me on the phone and made it very clear no online journalists will receive credentials by asking him. Now I would have left the whole thing alone, except that I know there are a ton of NASCAR bloggers so I figured I should find out what the IMS online journalist policy is. After much singing and dancing on Sullivan's part over the phone I still don't know what the policy is.

Whether you read blogs or not is irrelevant, millions of sports fans do. Its for the fans that this issue must be addressed. If a sportswriter for ESPN that covers motorsports writes a blog he or she gets credentialed, but if an independent journalist working from a blog asks for the same courtesy IMS will deny the independent journalist. However, and I know this to be true, if a freelance journalist with no affiliation asks for credentials at IMS they will get credentialed.

So tell me how is an unaffiliated freelancer different from a blogger? Why is it when I go to the Indy 500 I can't throw a rock without hitting someone let in on press credentials that isnt even actually a journalist writing a story? How is it fair to credential the drunk in Gasoline Alley who is a fraud but not the entertainment reporter who wants to cover the fun aspects of motorsports?

 

Ron Green is the VP of media relations at the Speedway, not Tim Sullivan. Green sets the policy; Sullivan works in his office.

Talk to Green, and stop making Sullivan look like some kind of bad guy in your blog. Using a blog to bitch about how you were denied credentials makes you look petty and sophomoric, especially when you weren't even talking to the right person.

 

Name names on the unaffiliated freelancer please. Until you do, your argument carries no weight.

If it's who I think you're referring to based on your anonymous potshot in the last graph, that person is affiliated.

A point that doesn't carry any weight anyway, because the Speedway and any other organization has the right to credential who they want.

 

There are a lot of NASCAR bloggers, but they're not at the racetrack. They're watching it on television and blogging from home. Unlike the IMS facility, press centers at most NASCAR tracks are antiquated and cramped. There's barely enough room all the legitimate journalists, much less bloggers. The blogging done at the track is done by writers from ESPN.com, thatsracin.com, NASCAR.com, etc., who do it to complement their primary coverage.

 

From the blog in question: "It's an ongoing YouTube based show Dan does covering events going on in Indianapolis to show what kind of fun can be had here. ... Nevermind that the Internet goes beyond Central Indiana and gives the show a potential global audience, but I digress."

Give me a break. These are the kind of people who make it difficult for motorsports journalists to do their jobs. Buy a ticket. And leave Sullivan alone. He can be prickly, but like everyone else at IMS, he's a pro.

 

Right. The blogger doesn't need a press pass to fulfill his mission. Especially since no one without a press pass can do the "fun" things that he would be blogging about.

Take your camera in and do the same thing you would have done WITHOUT a press pass. Pay your way in, sneak your way in, borrow your way in, whatever. But then start filming the "fun" things that actual people are doing.

 

If I read your post right, you asked for credentials because your buddy was moving away and hadn't yet had the privilege of visiting the speedway? That's your reason?

Puh-lease.

The fact that his gig is supposed to show all the "fun" things you can do in Indy and in a decade, he's never even been to the only place the entire universe knows is in Indy, kind of shoots down the whole concept, doesn't it? Or am I missing something?

 

Everytime a suspect blogger complains about access, I smile.

Stick it to him IMS.

 

"So tell me how is an unaffiliated freelancer different from a blogger? Why is it when I go to the Indy 500 I can't throw a rock without hitting someone let in on press credentials that isnt even actually a journalist writing a story? How is it fair to credential the drunk in Gasoline Alley who is a fraud but not the entertainment reporter who wants to cover the fun aspects of motorsports?"

Because the "unaffiliated freelancer" is being paid by someone and that someone got the credentials for them. And you're seriously questioning why IMS would credential someone from ESPN, the network that carries most of their races, and not some schmuck typing a "story" in his basement? Are you truly that stupid or are you just high? As someone who has covered his fair share of events at IMS, they don't just lot random people into the media center for the most part. Are there people who probably don't need to be there? Of course, but unless your blog is nationally-recognized and you've covered IMS events before, then you won't, and shouldn't, be credentialed. Just because you pay Yahoo! a couple bucks a year for the domain name and know HTML code and can string together a few sentences doesn't mean you should gain access to one of the biggest sporting events on the planet. Why should a blogger who isn't even there to actually cover the race itself get a space when there are a ton of legitimate reporters who can't get access? Go earn your credential like the rest of us.

 

Skippy, I'm on your side on this, but if an unaffiliated freelancer is being paid, said freelancer is affiliated. What legitimate reporters don't get access? Hey, even Ed Hinton's allowed in since Tony George came to his senses. And how does one "earn" their credential? I thought editors, not tracks, assigned reporters. Clear these items up and your argument should be strengthened.

 

The Indy 500 is still one of the biggest sporting events on the planet? Maybe if that planet extends only from Muncie to Terre Haute, and we're still living in 1983.

 

But other than that, Skippy is right on.