Examining the Reality of Reporting Based on Speculation : A Case Study of the Illegal Gambling Incident Reported by a National Newspaper by a Former Interpreter for Shohei Otani of the Dodgers in the Major League Baseball

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Ippei Mizuhara, a former interpreter for Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers of the US Major League Baseball, has racked up a large amount of debt through illegal sports betting, and prosecutors allege that he withdrew a large amount of cash from the player's bank account without permission to make up for it. Authorities charged the former interpreter with bank fraud on April 11, 2024 (US time). When the former interpreter was found out, he confessed to the US media, saying, ``Otani took over my debt,'' but later changed his statement. Otani's side also completely denied any involvement. In fact, the federal district attorney's office also ruled that Otani was the victim of cash withdrawal without his permission, and that there was no evidence to show that he was involved. However, Japanese and international media initially raised questions such as whether it would be possible to withdraw large sums of cash from Otani's bank account without his consent. Furthermore, we found a number of articles that point out the possibility of repercussions for Otani based on hypotheses and speculation, such as ``what if Otani took over the debt after knowing that it was illegal gambling debt.'' In this study, we examined how national newspapers dealt with this issue. The Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, and Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspapers were targeted from March 21, 2017, when the incident was reported in Japan, to June 5, 2017, when the former interpreter appeared in federal district court and pleaded guilty. The published article was verified. As a result, six articles were identified based on the hypothesis or speculation that Otani was knowingly involved in illegal gambling, as originally explained by his former interpreter. There were 2 comments from experts, 3 quotes from foreign media reports, 1 column from a reporter, and 18 other articles that seemed to suggest suspicion. We believe that we were able to point to a problem with the media's handling of the matter, which should have been kept in the interview memo.