Sports Media

Let’s Move On: HBO’s Real Sports Facing Accusations

HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” is used to in-depth investigations, but they are not accustomed to being on this side of the questions.

Mitre Sports International says that Real Sports faked a story on their soccer balls, going so far as to pay children to lie on camera about their working conditions. Now the soccer ball manufacturer is turning the tables on HBO by filing a federal suit in New York with accusations of libel and severe financial damages.

As a result of the HBO piece, which aired in September, Mitre soccer balls were immediately pulled off of the shelves of Wal-Mart and Modell’s Sporting Goods.

In the report, HBO showed children in India working on dirt floors for just five cents a day, stitching soccer balls until their backs and hands ached. They accused Mitre of taking advantage of the children and providing awful working conditions. Mitre says that none of it is true.

Mitre entered into evidence a video of one of the children that HBO talked to, admitting that she lied to the camera in exchange for about two dollars. There are reportedly more videos of children and their parents admitting that HBO paid them to say what they said, and also lured them with the promise of fame for being on television.

Real Sports correspondent Bernard Goldberg was the on-screen reporter for the piece. HBO has declined to comment while the investigation is ongoing.

This is an absolute bombshell in the world of sports journalism. HBO is the standard of sports journalism, and Real Sports is the anchor of HBO Sports original reporting wing. All other investigative sports journalism pieces are judged in comparison to this show. To get caught creating stories where they didn’t exist, and paying for fake stories, will essentially end the show. This is something that an investigative journalism show cannot survive.

Of course, the other side of this story is that it is completely plausible to think that Mitre fabricated their own story to try to make up for the damage done by HBO. I’m not suggesting this to be true, but it could explain this if it were. Imagine, Mitre’s business is badly hurt by HBO, so how do you fix it? You make up a story about HBO paying children, you go and pay them to tell your story instead, and your soccer balls are back on the shelves and HBO pays for all of your lost business. It may be just a conspiracy theory by me, but it sounds very plausible. If this were a movie, that’s probably what happened. In real life, who knows?

According to the New York Post, Mitre filed their suit in New York in October, “charging Gumbel’s show with libel and claiming it lost ‘tens of millions of dollars’ because of the negative portrayal.”

This could be the biggest story in sports journalism this decade, and I’ll be sure to keep you updated on the status of this suit.

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