As longtime readers of this blog and of my column know, I have occasionally had my issues with the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association, the governing body for the state's public high school sports, and the way it administers the rules.

But I have always appreciated MPSSAA Executive Director Ned Sparks' cooperation with the press. I can never recall a time when I have called him on a story, even when it was going to be critical, when he hasn't answered immediately or quickly returned the call, and he has always been unfailingly gracious.

This is relevant because of the battle raging between the Illinois High School Association and press organizations in that state over the IHSA's ability to regulate the use of news photos and videos.

The IHSA attempted to require Carlos Miranda, a photographer from the Bloomington Pantagraph to sign an agreement barring him from selling reprints of pictures taken during the state's cheerleading championships. When Miranda wouldn't sign the form, the IHSA, which had hired its own photographer to take pictures to be sold, denied him access to press areas, so he bought a ticket and took his pictures from the stands.

Look, I'm not so self-absorbed as to believe that readers are overly worried about press access. My feeling is that most people feel about how the media does its work the same way it does about how sausage is made: You don't care how the product is made. You just want the product.

Fair enough, and the media's often salacious conduct in recent stories (see Britney Spears) isn't the kind of thing that will engender goodwill toward us.

That said, putting up an artificial barrier between the press and events is not a good idea for agencies, especially quasi-governmental ones like the IHSA. The media's general function is to disseminate information to the public, and policies like these keep the public from knowing what it wants to know.

And, in terms that are completely relevant to the way high school sports are conducted today, keeping the press from taking pictures or fully reporting on games means that parents have one less piece of material to send to colleges to get their kids scholarships.