If I had a nickel for every outreach I’ve gotten from a one-time “feudal media” journalist now aligned with a digital platform asking for my “mere pennies a day” to support their continuing endeavors I might actually be able to afford more than a handful of them. Between consolidation, AI and downright cheapness there are a lot more competent and entertaining scribes to be found in far-flung reaches of the Internet than there are on its most popular sites.
In a majority of cases, now lacking the resources they once had at their disposals when they had corporate funds and subscriptions, they are generally reduced to opinion bloggers. That lengthy list includes moi, of course. But some actually still have enough connections and tenacity to deliver information not seen anywhere else–and when they do it’s a victory for every disenfranchised content creator of any kind. In the past several days we’ve gotten two stellar examples of that sort of feel-good underdog story that practically supercedes the topic being covered. I dare say at this moment you’re only aware of one of them.
If you’re a sports fan–or at least someone who occasionally visits our sister site THE DOUBLE OVERTIME–you’re already aware of the death penalty that was imposed by the NBA on the Los Angeles Clippers. My partner in crime Mr. Denavi did a stellar job in detailing those events. What is now being hailed as the reason those now-irrefutable revelations came out at all was the work of one Pablo Torre. PFSN’s Shabiha Akter broke out the laurel wreath anointings earlier this week:
Investigative journalist Pablo Torre can finally breathe a sigh of relief after securing a major victory following the NBA’s final verdict on Kawhi Leonard’s controversial endorsement deal saga.
Torre received widespread praise for exposing LA’s connections to Aspiration and the reported arrangement that involved paying Leonard through a no-show endorsement deal. Despite repeated denials from both the Clippers and Leonard, Torre remained firm in his reporting and stood by the findings of his investigation. His efforts culminated in the Clippers getting fined $30 million and docked five first-round draft picks. Meanwhile, team owner Steve Ballmer was suspended from all league and team activities for one year, and Leonard was handed a $700,000 penalty.
Torre joined ESPN in 2012 after spending five years at Sports Illustrated. The ESPN writer eventually left his role at the network in 2023 to join Meadowlark Media, the company founded by former ESPN executive John Skipper and Dan Le Batard. While at Meadowlark Media, Torre launched his independent podcast, “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”…The investigative journalist published his initial report on his podcast nearly a year ago. The evidence and allegations he presented were significant enough to attract the NBA’s attention, eventually prompting the league to launch an investigation into the matter.
But as recently as last month his former employer–an entity that just happens to be one of the league’s media rightsholders including the NBA Finals–did its darndest to squish what they might have seen as the little ant:
Amid further developments in August, ESPN published a report that appeared to cast doubt on the strength of Torre’s episodic investigation, stating that the league had found “no evidence” that Ballmer “funneled money” to Leonard through a sponsor. However, Torre’s investigation ultimately received its biggest validation when the NBA formally announced its punishments against the Clippers and several other organizational figures involved on Wednesday.
THE ATHLETIC’s Dan Shanoff gave Torre an opportunity for a deserved victory lap on Thursday:
Right after the announcement, Mark Cuban — who had been a bit of an adversary over the past year — tweeted “Congrats Pablo.” About him and everyone else who weighed in over the past year, do you feel any sense of vindication?
I loved seeing that from Mark, because I loved talking to him. I have this sort of podcast brain disease, I guess, where my main thought was, “I wonder if you’d come back on the show.” So that was my first reaction. My second thought was, I really hope that people don’t think that the only way that you can trust reporting like this is if the entity or the institution that you’re investigating takes their hand and raises it and says, ‘Yes, the journalist was right.’ But I also hope that people can evaluate the work on its merits and learn to trust that our process is rigorous in ways that are bordering on unhealthily obsessive, which is a separate problem, but hopefully one that they can trust.
Cuban–as media-savvy as any billionaire with an opinion–at least had the chops to give credit where credit is due. ESPN has been remarkably silent on this front, merely reporting the release from NBA czar Adam Silver on the specifics and a statement from Ballmer effectively pooh-poohing it all. I tend to take my lead from from folks like Cuban, as you know. So boo indeed, “Worldwide Leader”.
And in the spirit of Cuban’s ability to admit when he was wrong, allow me to introduce you to BUZZERBLOG’s Cory Anotado. Unless you’re as much of a game show afficianiado as am I, you probably don’t know who he is. You should. Aside from being a damn good player (he helped a team of trivia experts break GSN’s bank for a $180,000 payoff on a stellar episode of its version of THE CHASE) and a wonderful stager of virtual games for a great cause (he spearheads an annual charity effort in his Philadelphia hometown–naturally called CHILD’S PLAY, also the title of a beloved one-season Bill Cullen-hosted game show), it turns out Cory’s a fantastic investigative journalist to boot.
You will note on Friday I was in utter denial about what I saw as the unfortunate fate of now-former WHEEL OF FORTUNE announcer Jim Thornton–notwithstanding the breaking news that hit my inbox as I was composing that musing, By that day’s end he had indeed been fired permanently by Sony. I based my insistent view on knowing people first hand who know Thornton and yeah, I bought every bit of his attorney’s defense–even in light of these revealing screenshots which TMZ had obtained. Most media outlets have carefully referenced them as justification for why Sony acted as swiftly and draconially as they did.
But only Anotado and his crew that typically reports otherwise trivial items like a set refresh for the upcoming new season of JEOPARDY! included the smoking gun that he cited in his story that dropped on that site on Friday:
While doing a Google search for the screen name “NicholasB77”, a BuzzerBlog Discord member tipped us off to the below post, from a website called “boychat.org”, from a user also going by NicholasB77, promoting a podcast interview with someone named “Cowboy” on a radio station called “Wired PM.” It seems to have been facilitated by someone named “Dragonlover…You can see people complimenting his voice, saying “great radio voice” and another comparing NicholasB77’s voice to Casey Kasem…
On the radio station’s website, of which we’re posting an archive.ph link for posterity but by no means should you view it, a list of past archived audio exists. Dragonlover’s shows are archived, and there is only one show under Dragonlover’s section of the website with a date of August 23, 2024. We downloaded the whole podcast to review it. Even separated from the game show-linked controversy, what we found was shocking. After Dragonlover’s introduction airs, the interview starts, and NicholasB77, who in this podcast self-identified as “Little Nicky”, introduces himself.
BuzzerBlog cannot say for certain if that voice speaking is Jim Thornton, because nor do we have any additional information about this podcast or who posted it. We are also not experts in forensic voice identification. We ran some of these clips through both Gemini and OpenAI watermark checkers, and both tools have indicated that there are no identifying watermarks, which implies that neither Gemini or OpenAI created these voice clips. We also ran some of these clips through ElevenLabs’ Audio Detector; ElevenLabs is one of the premiere AI voice generating platforms. ElevenLabs could not detect any watermarks generated by their software, and gives an “AI speech probability” score of 2.0% and states that “It’s very unlikely this audio was generated with ElevenLabs, or the audio was manipulated.” The clips were cut down from the originally downloaded MP3 of the radio show, and were not altered or manipulated in any way other than clipped from a larger source.
Anotodo then provided the actual audio and print excepts for those with the tolerance and/or resolve to review them. So you don’t have to, I did. Here’s all I’ll add to what he already did with all of the necessary disclaimers and caveats an independent journalist with a modestly trafficked (in comparison to, say, DEADLINE) should employ: I’ve changed my mind about Jim Thornton. Now that he will have all the time in the world at his disposal–especially after his lawyer indeed gets him something for his troubles as high-priced attorneys typically do–I pray he will find the help he really is in need of. I dare say that’s a lot nicer wish that he’s likely getting from Anotodo and his fellow uberfans.
Torre’s got a Pulitzer Prize to show for his efforts and more ahead, as THE CALIFORNIA POST’s
Torre uncovered seemingly illicit ties between Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and Walter on his podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out. As a minority owner of the Dodgers, Johnson became a billionaire. Johnson is the majority owner of EquiTrust Life Insurance Company since April 25, 2014, which was sold to him by Walter. The asset became the largest of Johnson’s business portfolio, helping the Lakers legend reach billionaire status in 2023… EquiTrust, which is this life insurance company, was being sold by Mark Walter to Magic Johnson, his fellow Dodgers co-owner. And it was also loaning $350 million to Mark Walter’s media company…” Torre said…The transaction was allegedly not disclosed as an affiliate transaction, according to Torre and Sam Koppelman of Hunterbrook Media.
Rone was not only a rising FOX SPORTS executive during my time there, but his lovely wife Kris was a onetime marketing executive who eventually rose to Executive Vice President status with the Dodgers during the time that News Corporation owned them and that I was fortunate enough to have frequent access to suites for games when the Mets visited Chavez Ravine. She was, of course, my primary point of contact.