BOISE -- Plans to bring you Bronco head coach Chris Petersen's news conference live Thursday on 24/7 and KTVB.COM were interrupted when the university forced us to pull the plug on our live feed.
Just as Coach Pete's news conference was getting started our Ryan Larrondo tried to get live shot reinstated based on our First Amendment right.
Here's what happened when Assistant Athletic Director Max Corbet insisted we shut it down for a second time.
Ryan: "Excuse me Coach Pete, can we delay this just for a second?"
Max: "Ryan, what are we doing?"
Ryan: "We need to get live."
Max: "No, no it's not live, we're not doing anything, no."
Ryan: "Well that is what our agreement was."
Max: "No."
Ryan: "That we were going to go live."
Max: "Don't interrupt this, don't."
Ryan: "I'm sorry but that's just what,"
Max: "No, either pull it all up. We're not doing anything live, we're doing it live."
Ryan: "Well that's kind of freedom of speech, we're,"
Max: "No, no... no."
Ryan: "doing it live."
Max: "No, it's our event, no come on guys."
KTVB's Dee Sarton was also at the news conference.
Corbet refused an on camera interview but told her it was their event and a contractual issue.
KTVB's attempts to get some specific contract language or further explanation have gone unanswered.
Idaho NewsChannel 7's Media Law Attorney Deb Krsitensen weighed in on the issue, "Generally speaking, all media have a First Amendment right to cover "news" and take pictures as long as they are lawfully in the place where they are taking the pictures."
KTVB's media consultant Alan Oldfield also happened to be in town. He works with television stations all over the country and says colleges and universities everywhere are tightening access to the athletic programs, but he says what he saw happen today in Boise is unprecedented.
"This is the first instance I've ever heard of where the news media is not allowed to publish or broadcast without restriction," said Oldfield. "A news media organization represents the public. We represent the public's eyes and ears and we are charged with gathering information and we are charged with monitoring government and then reporting to the public those facts. So once you start restricting access to government supported institutions, which BSU is restricting that information, you are actually restricting the public's information."
Boise State is a public institution and we were invited to today's news conference.
KTVB is still waiting to hear back from Boise State.
We're expecting another news conference with Coach Pete next week.
