00:00You guys know that I am a little bit, not a little bit, I'm, I'm hypersensitive to negative
00:05stories about sports gambling.
00:07An article came out today in, uh, the Columbia journal journalism review.
00:15I was unfamiliar with this publication, but Nicole Noren is a decorated ESPN, now former
00:23decorated ESPN producer who has written or has sat down for an interview.
00:29I should say with a writer, with the headline coming out as I'm not going to have blood
00:34on my hands.
00:36A question was poet was posed to Nicole about why she resigned from ESPN.
00:42She was a highly decorated producer for ESPN.
00:48She had been involved with Emmys and Merle awards and Peabody awards.
00:53She worked for outside the lines.
00:55She did some in-depth reporting on gender-based violence and mental health of college students
01:02and concussions.
01:03She did NFL stories.
01:05She was part of a ton of major work at ESPN.
01:09And when she found out that ESPN was going to get in bed with sports gambling, was going
01:14to get in bed with sports betting companies.
01:18She decided to resign.
01:21Now, this is getting picked up by a lot of national media types that are saying, this
01:26is the exact reason why sports gambling is so dangerous and why we need more people like
01:31Nicole to share their experiences about the problems.
01:35She was asked, when you shared your concern with your bosses at ESPN and other leaders,
01:40did they offer a defense?
01:42Her answer was no.
01:44It was almost like putting their heads in the sand.
01:46What bothered me the most was a seeming disregard for the dangers in not thinking about the
01:51ramifications of ESPN normalizing gambling for an audience that looks to ESPN as sort
01:58of their sports guide.
01:59She said, a few weeks after my last day, a former coworker sent me a link to ESPN's website.
02:05They had posted an interactive gambling story, a primer on how to gamble on sports.
02:10The animation are bouncy and bright.
02:13It's pretty much made for kids.
02:16She was asked about her own personal experiences with gambling.
02:22And the question was, what ultimately persuaded you to leave ESPN?
02:28And she told the story.
02:30My grandfather, my father, and one of my brothers were pretty much destroyed by sports gambling
02:35addiction.
02:36I grew up in Ventura, California in multiple times.
02:39We had suddenly had to move because of extreme financial ups and downs.
02:43I mean, I grew up in a sports book.
02:44We didn't go to museums and typical places kids go to.
02:48We were dragged to Las Vegas in the eighties and hanging out in the Hilton.
02:51That's the Westgate and Caesar sports books.
02:54When kids weren't supposed to be around there.
02:56I remember going to the horse track, going to the dog track.
02:59My brother died 13 years ago on the sidewalk in downtown Las Vegas is a stark reality, but
03:07it illustrates the tragic arc of being brought there as kids.
03:11So our dad could gamble at sports books to then surviving on the streets there as a homeless
03:16person in dying at 36.
03:20The level of that statement and the amazing jump that that now is being allowed to be
03:27unchecked grab my attention quickly.
03:32I'm not trying to say that you as a human being do not have a right to walk away from
03:38any job that does not align with your morals or your goals as a professional.
03:43If you are working for a company that you do not agree with their goals, you have every
03:48right to sit there and say, I'm out, I'm out.
03:53I bring this story up because the frustration that comes from this is where are the stories
04:00about alcohol the same way?
04:04Because without alcohol advertising, there is no sports media.
04:09And I'm talking about the broad stroke of it.
04:11I'm talking about all of it.
04:12I'm talking about going back to the merger.
04:14I'm talking about the early, you know, ABC, CBS, NBC days, right?
04:19Before we had Fox.
04:21Yes, I'm old kids.
04:22I'm 49 years old.
04:23I'm talking about the rabbit ear days when the NFL was just in a fledgling state, when
04:28the NBA was still flailing around until bird and magic showed up.
04:33Alcohol advertisements saved sports.
04:38Without advertising alcohol, there is no sports media.
04:42So how many people have died in America due to alcohol since the 1960s?
04:50How many drunk driving deaths have there been in America since the 1960s?
04:55I was born in 1977.
04:58There wasn't a seatbelt law across the entire country in the 70s.
05:05We had to put that in place.
05:07We had to get states to do that.
05:09We had to mandatory.
05:10My father's generation grew up jumping back and forth from the front seat to the back seat
05:14while their dad had a six-pack open in the front seat.
05:17I'm not saying that's good.
05:20What I'm saying is there is such selective amounts of criticism coming down on sports
05:25gambling or those trying to make money on the sports gambling industry.
05:29And these stories get propped up and pushed out by national media types who hate sports
05:34gambling that say, look, see, look what this woman had her father and her brother.
05:41Her brother could have been addicted to a multitude of things and him becoming homeless and ultimately
05:48dying on the streets of downtown Las Vegas.
05:51I need to know so much more about that story before I go, okay, it's sports gambling's fault.
