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The University of Washington is counting your tweets and will punish you

Blog Post by: Michael Rand
November 13, 2012 - 2:18 PM

We will say this: too many tweets from a reporter covering a live sporting event -- particularly one that is widely televised -- can get annoying. But usually the follow/unfollow routine does the trick. Or you just put up with it.

The University of Washington, however, seems to have taken it upon itself to be more than just an athletic department. Yes, the Huskies staffers are the full-scale Twitter police. Per Awful Announcing:

Todd Dybas, a reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune and a contributor to SI.com, was reprimanded by the University of Washington on Sunday during the Huskies 85-63 win over Loyola (MD). Did he leave the area to which the press is restricted? Did he eat too much free food? Was he openly cheering for the visiting team? Talking too loud on his phone? Nope, he tweeted too much.

It turns out that the university has a policy which only allows credentialed media to send 20 tweets during a basketball game. And the university "reserves all actions against Credential Holder, including but not limited to the revocation of the credential. UW and its designated personnel shall be the final authority on whether a Credential Holder or Credential Entity is following the Live Coverage Policy.

Who thought up this policy and why? How did they decide 20 tweets was the gold standard? What if the game goes into overtime? So many questions. Such a weird policy.