7 Conflicts of Interest (Mostly in Sports)

Conflicts of interest surface throughout professional media. In this lesson, we’ll study conflicts of interest by focusing primarily on sports media. However, the case examples can serve as cautionary tales for decision-making far beyond athletics.

Before we dive into sports-specific examples, though, let’s consider the case of Superman (who no doubt would have been a world-class athlete if he had chosen to go that route instead of saving the world). In most media portrayals, Clark Kent works as a journalist who sometimes reports on his own heroic alter ego, Superman.

Journalists who report about themselves or benefit from their own reporting face an immediate conflict of interest. As a journalist, Clark Kent should have a professional interest in truthful reporting that informs the public, but he may have a competing interest to portray Superman as extremely heroic in his news stories.

• Is Clark Kent less likely to include public criticism of Superman in his reporting?
• Will he include important details that only Superman would know?
• Should Clark Kent quote himself as Superman in a story?

The potential conflicts of interest become even thornier in cases when Lois Lane, Clark Kent’s love interest and an award-winning journalist, interviews Superman. In the following video, James Gunn, the screenwriter and director for the 2025 big-screen version of Superman, explains a scene in which Lois Lane, who knows that fellow reporter Clark Kent is also Superman, conducts an on-the-record interview.

Although Gunn primarily focuses on entertainment and character development in this video, the scene also illustrates the conflict of interest that can occur when a reporter is in a romantic relationship with an important story source.

Crossing an Ethical Line

Now let’s transition from a fictional superhero to an ESPN reporter.

Study the following presentation slides by using the forward button or clicking on sections of the control bar.

Here is additional perspective about the opening case study:

• ESPN’s Adam Schefter crosses a journalistic line – Poynter

The article included a key takeaway that journalists can verify specific information or direct quotes without sharing an entire story with a source:

Asking a source to clarify something is, of course, not only OK, but good journalism. That should be (and can be) done without showing the source what you wrote.

The University of Texas Center for Media Engagement published additional analysis:

• Adam Schefter and “Mr. Editor”

What Is a Conflict of Interest?

A conflict of interest typically occurs when media professionals have a personal involvement, obligation or desire that clashes with their duties to an employer or the audience.

The section about independence in the NPR Ethics Handbook offers additional perspective:

Conflicts of interest come in many shapes — financial holdings, romantic relationships, family ties, book deals, speaking engagements, and others. It’s important to regularly review how our connections are entangled with the subjects of our reporting, and when necessary, to take action.

One interesting example of a sports conflict of interest surfaced when former NFL quarterback Tom Brady became a part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders while also working as a commentator for Fox Sports NFL broadcasts.

Concerns about Brady’s conflict of interest only increased when a social media post suggested he was providing direct assistance and advice to Raiders’ coaches.

Here are two ethical questions.

• Will Tom Brady’s financial interest in the success of the Las Vegas Raiders affect his ability to be objective in covering other teams for Fox Sports?
• In his role as a Fox Sports broadcaster, can Tom Brady collect key information about another team’s players or strategies and then share that information with Las Vegas coaches to give the Raiders a competitive advantage?

As another example of a sports-related conflict of interest, consider the case of sports reporter Dianna Russini, who was an NFL insider for The Athletic.

In 2026, photographs published by the New York Post showed Russini and New England Patriots coach Steve Vrabel holding hands and hugging.

In a subsequent internal review, Mike Semel, The Athletic’s editorial director for standards, wrote, “Russini should have disclosed to The Athletic the nature of her relationship with Vrabel to allow editors to assess the kinds of stories on which she should have been working, if any. She did not.”

Although Russini did not cover the Patriots extensively, Semel said that “there are examples of Russini writing glowingly of Vrabel that in hindsight are awkward or even uncomfortable.”

Gambling and Sports Reporting

In 2021, FanDuel, a sports betting website, paid an advertising fee to become the exclusive provider of sports odds in Associated Press sports reporting. According to an article from Axios, the Associated Press agreed to “cite FanDuel odds as a single source in its copy when referring to betting odds and will hyperlink out to FanDuel’s home page, not to any of its betting pages.”

Since then, the Associated Press has switched from FanDuel to a partnership with BetMGM as gambling and sports media have become increasingly entwined. For example, below is a screenshot of an ESPN2 television broadcast of the 2024 PGA Championship. Fans could see live odds as the tournament unfolded.

By connecting content with gambling odds to enhance company revenue, the Associated Press and ESPN seem to be encouraging sports gambling. Thus, they benefit financially instead of maintaining a neutral stance on a controversial issue.

Sports gambling is still illegal in some states, partly because of concerns about gamblers becoming addicted. An essay in Bloomberg Opinion asked this question: “As gaming companies merge and sports leagues and media companies get in on the action, is anyone concerned about the dangers of gambling?”

To be fair, many major sports media outlets beyond the Associated Press and ESPN have similar arrangements to gain revenue from sports gambling sites. A New York Times analysis from 2024 cited research showing that NBA and NHL viewers “are exposed to three gambling ads a minute.” It said that commercial sports betting revenue increased 12-fold from 2019 to 2024.

Another media research study concluded that audiences for major televised sports events spend up to 20% of every game watching gambling advertising.

If you are contemplating a career in sports journalism or you are passionate about sports, you should read this in-depth historical analysis from Columbia Journalism Review:

• All In: How gambling swallowed sports media – CJR

The CJR article noted that sports reporters are sometimes the first to know about key injuries, coaching changes and lineup adjustments, or they may have inside information about a team’s game-day strategies. As gambling becomes more entwined with sports media coverage, “the opportunity for journalists to capitalize on behind-the-scenes access would seem irresistible.”

One analysis published by Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab, framed the question bluntly: Can reporters make bets on sports they cover? The article noted that there are few formal guidelines preventing sports journalists from using their inside information for financial gain.

And because many readers of this guidebook are college students, the following 2023 article seems relevant in this section. The Louisiana Illuminator explained why Louisiana State University and some other schools ended controversial advertising agreements with sports betting companies.

• LSU to fold on its controversial sports-betting deal with Caesar’s – Louisiana Illuminator

The article cited survey data from the NCAA indicating that “67% of on-campus students participate in sports betting.” On college campuses, this conflict of interest pits athletic department profit from advertising agreements against the financial and emotional well-being of some vulnerable students.

Media outlets may ponder whether they have an ethical duty to protect consumers from gambling ads, even with the accompanying loss of ad revenue. The Guardian announced that it would ban gambling ads, saying “it is unethical to take money from services that can lead to ‘addiction and financial ruin.'”

• The Guardian bans all gambling advertising – The Guardian

Conflict of Corporate Gambling Interests

Some media analysts wonder whether sports leagues and media conglomerates benefit from gambling so much that they will prefer to ignore or downplay negative stories about sports betting.

For example, ESPN is the primary owner of the NFL Network. Both ESPN and the NFL have an interest in protecting the image and integrity of the NFL, but they also want to continue generating revenue from advertising and sponsorship deals with sports-betting companies.

Is ESPN eager to pursue investigative stories about NFL players and sports gambling, even if those stories cause some cynical viewers to assume that NFL games are rigged because of gambling?

Similarly, several NBA players and a coach were arrested on gambling-related charges in 2025. Some of those charges involved NBA games. As a result, sports journalist Patrick Redford wrote the following analysis:

• The NBA media is not built to cover a gambling scandal – The Defector

Here’s a key point in Redford’s analysis:

Basketball on TV is no longer merely an entertainment product, an aesthetic experience, or an exercise in tribalism; it is an interactive experience, a moneymaking platform, something that the gambler is part of—if not something that exists explicitly to facilitate wagering.

Betting on News

Sports reporters are no longer the only journalists who face potential conflicts of interest related to gambling. Emerging prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi have created pathways for people to bet on almost anything.

Poynter reported on how the rise of prediction markets is creating new ethical headaches for journalists. One concern is whether reporters who include prediction-market data in their stories run the risk of manipulating the outcome of future events.

Here are six examples of wagers available on Polymarket:

• Which film will win Best Picture in the Oscar Awards?
• Will China invade Taiwan by the end of the current year?
• Who will win the U.S. presidency in 2028?
• Will Apple stop selling MacBook Neo?
• Will Taylor Swift get married in Manhattan? (wager was available in early June 2026)

A journalist who gains a definitive answer to one of these questions through their reporting processes could personally benefit from placing a bet on Polymarket. As a result, some news outlets have developed policies that protect journalistic integrity by restricting staff members from placing prediction-market bets.

For example, ProPublica updated its Code of Ethics to include the following:

All employees must also take particular caution when gambling. While betting on sporting events (like the Super Bowl or the Kentucky Derby) and taking part in small-stakes, friendly contests (like office pools on the Oscars) are permissible when legal and when employees are not involved in coverage of those events, no employee should wager on the outcome of news events on the prediction markets — regardless of whether or not they are involved in coverage of said event.

As another example, NPR forbid its employees from betting on which musical artists will perform on upcoming Tiny Desk concerts.

And on a side note regarding advertising ethics, a Wall Street Journal investigation published in 2026 detailed how Polymarket paid social media influencers to stage fake winning bets. This unethical advertising deception can be classified as fabrication, which we’ll study in the next chapter.

Documentaries

Conflicts of interest are prevalent in documentary filmmaking as well. An article in Columbia Journalism Review suggested that documentary filmmakers often do not follow journalistic standards.

• Television is making more documentaries than ever – but skipping the journalism – CJR

In this CJR article, one sports example of a conflict of interest involves the release of The Last Dance in 2020. Michael Jordan granted access to archived off-court footage “on the condition that he could decide when, if ever, amazing shots of his airplane card games and tirades at practice could be released.”

In this case, the featured personality in the documentary had extensive control over the film’s content. To what extent could this have affected the truthfulness of the product? A documentary that uses only approved footage can become more like a PR project instead of an authentic portrayal of events.

In a previous lesson, we studied how executives may exercise prior review and approve content for PR stories. Note how a similar process can emerge for celebrities and other public figures who are given the opportunity to approve or reject footage in documentaries.

Closing Reminder

Although this lesson relies on sports-related case examples, you can find similar conflicts of interest from across the media spectrum. As a closing non-sports example from 2022, the Online News Association partnered with the 3M company to create the 3M Truth in Science Award. The following summary explained the conflict of interest:

• For Online News Association, the thorny ethics of partnering with 3M – Harvard’s Nieman Lab

The article noted that “for decades, 3M withheld evidence from regulators and the public showing that chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in some of its products accumulated in the environment and people’s bloodstreams with potentially toxic effects.”

Thus, a company that sponsored an award for truth in science reporting may not have always been truthful in its own disclosures to the public. This perhaps made the award more of a PR image-reclamation campaign for 3M rather than a sincere initiative for truthful science reporting.

Closing Review