The NYT’s Athletic Problem

**Dylan Byers** (0:01)
In order to be an insider, an insider is someone who does have relationships with the players, who conceivably, if it had been a man, could have been photographed in a hot tub with Mike Vrabel, and not as many questions would have been raised. How does the Times negotiate that?

**Peter Hamby** (0:18)
Welcome to The Powers That Be Daily, Pucks podcast focused on the intersection of Wall Street, Washington, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, and the players who run it all. I'm Peter Hamby. It's Thursday, June 25th. Today, I'm joined by Dylan Byers with a look at tensions between The New York Times and The Athletic, which are flaring once again after The Times published a big investigation into Dianna Russini, the former athletic reporter who became tabloid fodder after her secret relationship with Patriots coach, Mike Vrabel, was splashed all over the internet. Dylan also tells me about one leader at CNN that Paramount would very much like to keep in the building as CNN begins the thorny process of merging with CBS News. We'll discuss all that and much more on today's episode of The Powers That Be.

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**Peter Hamby** (1:44)
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Happy Thursday, everybody, and welcome to The Powers That Be. I'm joined today by my colleague Dylan Byers. We're gonna talk about the story that a lot of people in sports media have been waiting for. The New York Times just dropped a blockbuster investigation into their former colleague, semi-colleague, over at The Athletic, Dianna Russini, her relationship with Mike Vrabel, questions about access and fairness. We're also gonna talk about the looming merger of CBS and CNN, and Dylan, as you know, has been on the story and has some names for who could be involved in new leadership possibly over at CNN. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see that I'm wearing my US. Men's National Team jersey. We have a big game tonight, maybe not a big game, but a big celebration. I'm going to SoFi, Dylan, we're playing Turkey. We've already advanced, but if you listened to the podcast yesterday with John Orrind, you know that it's just a joyful time to be a US soccer fan. I thought I'd wear a non-button down shirt for the first time on The Powers That Be.

**Dylan Byers** (3:53)
Peter, it's such a joyful time. I wonder if our boss man, John Kelly, knows just how much procrastination is going on among the employees as we watch these games that out here in California start at 9 AM and run through the day. It's wonderful.
No work whatsoever.

**Peter Hamby** (4:10)
It's like the first weekend of March Madness, but every day. It's incredible.

**Dylan Byers** (4:14)
It's fantastic.

**Peter Hamby** (4:16)
So Dylan, the story dropped just yesterday about Dianna Russini. If you listen to this podcast, you're probably familiar with the contours of the story. Dianna Russini came out of local TV early in her career in Washington, actually.
My brother-in-law and I remember her as a commander's reporter.

**Dylan Byers** (4:33)
That's right.

**Peter Hamby** (4:34)
Rose to the ranks. She was at The Athletic, and obviously the whole tabloid scandal with Mike Vrabel broke. He's married, she's married. There are all kinds of speculation. There's a lot of tabloid angles to this. What was their relationship like? There's all these internet sleuths who were tracking down how she reportedly, I guess, cheated on her husband with Vrabel. But sports media, there are questions about access and fairness. It feels different to me, Dylan, than political media, even though people love to grease sources in political media. But if you were having an affair with or dating a member of Congress, that would be disclosed.