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If you're even a casual baseball fan, you're probably familiar with these words: "Any rebroadcast, reproduction or other use of this game without the express written consent of Major League Baseball is prohibited."

Once it became clear that New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle had been killed in yesterday's tragic airplane crash in New York, news organizations began scrambling for images of Lidle. They also scrambled for video of Lidle pitching – or would have, had they not known that it is nearly impossible to use such video without paying a significant sum to Major League Baseball.

"It is extremely frustrating to not have access to these materials," said CBSNews.com Editorial Director Dick Meyer, who remembers consistently being told as an "Evening News" producer that it is too expensive to use baseball footage in news stories.

"I think it's outrageous that Major League Baseball and other professional sports so aggressively protect their licensed material when players and people connected to baseball are in the news," he continued. "I thought it was the national pastime, not the copyright protection coalition."

Added Meyer: "I cannot see how withholding short clips of people playing baseball who are in the news is good citizenship or serves any public good other than the financial interests of some owners."

A representative from Major League Baseball did not return a call for comment.

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At first it was like some bad acid flashback – television cameras peering out over the Manhattan skyline, viewfinders and TV screens filled with a burning building as various tickers and “breaking news” alerts told of some undefined aviation accident. Was it a single-engine airplane or a helicopter, was it an accident or some purposeful act of violence? Unspoken but very much on all our minds – would there be more?

But in a matter of minutes, those fears and questions subsided as local television and cable news channels heard from eyewitnesses and evidence began making clear this was a tragic accident, not a terrorist attack. But the wall-to-wall, “breaking news” streamed on, even when it was clear that the situation was relatively well in-hand and controlled. This happened, in my opinion for two reasons. First, the crash occurred in New York City and aside from its tragic association with 9/11, it’s also the media capital of the world. The second reason is that the plane crash killed a minor celebrity – New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle.

Hey, anytime a small plane crashes into a New York City high rise, it’s news – and having a Yankees player involved elevates the interest level a bit. But was it headline news? Did the story merit being the lead on all three broadcast newscasts? Did it deserve more attention than, say, the ongoing international tension over a potentially nuclear North Korea, the war in Iraq or a variety of other “news” that happened outside of New York? Would a similar incident have received the same level of coverage had it occurred in San Diego, Seattle, Dallas, Miami or Denver and involved a member of their respective baseball teams? Is news like real estate, all about location, location, location?

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