Staffers with The Kentucky Kernel, the student newspaper at the University of Kentucky, were allowed to distribute the paper from a few spots outside the university’s football stadium during Saturday’s home game, as long as they didn’t walk around the parking lot handing out the paper, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported. Those were the terms of a compromise the university offered after seeking to block all distribution at the stadium. The university contends that distributing the Kernel on stadium property violates an $80-million contract that gives IMG College, a sports-marketing firm, exclusive advertising and media rights to university sports. Matt Murray, the Kernel’s editor in chief, said that the policy violates the First Amendment but that, for now, the paper would comply.
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6 Responses to U. of Kentucky and Student Newspaper Clash Over Sports-Marketing Deal
nebo113 - October 17, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Let’s see. According to that 5-4 Supreme Court decision, corporations are people with full free speech, including talking money. Ah, I see…$80 million doesn’t just talk. IT SHOUTS.
davegillespie - October 18, 2010 at 7:38 am
Ditto to what nebo113 wrote. UK should hang its head in shame. (Likewise, the Supreme Court).
blue_state_academic - October 18, 2010 at 8:37 am
So sad to hear about a university that can sell its soul so far that it has to exclude the student newspaper from being legitimately distributed on campus.
pigpen892 - October 18, 2010 at 10:58 am
Sad to hear, but no shock considering how easily UK sold its soul by naming a dormitory for athletes in honor of the Kentucky coal industry, by allowing logging of a tract of land donated to the university with stipulations that it be preserved, by insulting Wendell Berry when he chose to remove his esteemed works from UK in protest over mountain-top removal for extraction of coal. I could go on, but the list is too long for this comments section.
cmmoore1 - October 18, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Money talks and everyone else walks!! They sold their soul when I went to school there many, many years ago and it looks as though they just keep on doing the same thing!!
cewstaff3 - October 18, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Outrageous and disgusting. American journalism has already been eviscerated by big business in this country. It is ironic that even an institution of higher education can’t see how unwise a precendent it is to let a student paper be bullied in this manner!