Quote:
Originally Posted by 72off
because they were following up on the claim that ohtani referred this matter to the authorities last week? maybe they checked on it with their sources but couldn't find anything? you know, reporting on this story involving a high-profile athlete. are you alleging some espn anti-ohtani conspiracy here? lol
So you have absolutely no idea what types of constraints and incentives that these professionals have, yet feel qualified to discuss what's reasonable and what's suspicious? I have a pretty good idea how these thing work and Ohtani's PR people's behavior is entirely consistent with them having shared extensive information with the authorities.
It's very obvious to me what's going on here and it doesn't take any kind of conspiracy. Unlike your story, which makes no sense when you consider the incentives of individuals, my story makes sense from each person's perspective.
Tisha Thompson has a tip from months ago that connects Ohtani to the bookie, but sits on the information so that she can publish this at the right time (near the opening day, rather than off-season).
Then right around the Seoul trip, she starts asking MLB official, the Dodgers, Balelo about this with an implicit (or perhaps explicit) threat to release the information, unless she's provided with more info. Balelo hires a crisis PR guy (at this point, they have no explanation for this, so they are really concerned) and the PR guy tries to talk to Ohtani but instead hears from Ippei a story that entirely exonerates Ohtani and makes him look good, so he goes back to Thompson, we've got a wonderful explanation and sets her up with Ippei.
Then after all this, they hear from Ohtani directly that they were lied to, they panick and ask Thompson to withhold the story until they can figure out what's going on, Thompson gives them a deadline (because this is a fairly ideal time to get the story out from her perspective) to come up with a statement, they scramble to get that out.
Then Thompson publishes the initial story anyway, just with the new information added making the spokesman look like a complete idiot to his clients (both Balelo and Ohtani). Also by this point, from the spokesman's perspective, Thompson twice used the threat of releasing what she knows to get additional information from him and each time, she released the information she'd threatened to release anyway.
And for once, she has no leverage over the spokesman, because she's used all her bullets, she hasn't withheld any information. And with Ohtani's statement being way more thorough than expected, there just isn't much doubt any more that doesn't come down to, I won't trust anything that comes from Ohtani's camp. And the news cycle is honestly passing by, which means Thompson is desperate to keep this relevant and also desperate to make sure that if there was some breaking news on this topic, she's the one who gets to report it.
That's why this article was published, essentially with no new information - it does two things. First, it does get some additional engagement to keep the story marginally more relevant and second, it's a bluff to Ohtani's spokesman, hey, if you don't share more info, we can make you not sharing into a negative article. Unfortunately, Ohtani's spokesman has been kind of dumb but isn't quite that dumb - it's very obvious that releasing any additional information (now that Ohtani's addressed the situation) essentially just keeps the story in the news cycle. Thompson probably knew that, but investigative journalists make a living out of people talking when they aren't supposed to, so why not give it a try.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 72off
if ohtani is innocent of all wrong-doing this should be pretty straight-forward
The current story being told by Ohtani is fairly straightforward. What can Ohtani's camp share at this point that would make you go, yup, he didn't do it? There is nothing they can do to exonerate him in the eyes of skeptics - they need a third-party investigation (whether the Feds or MLB) to clear him. So what is the point of sharing any information with a party who is incentivized to drag him through the mud?