It's Happening Here
It's Happening Here
Podcast Description
Central Current is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newspaper for people building a life in Central New York. Our "It's Happening Here" podcast explores how local news, local government, and local civic engagement impacts our democracy as a whole.
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Content Themes
The podcast focuses on topics such as local journalism, civic engagement, government policy, and community challenges, with episodes discussing the implications of the New York State Local Journalism Sustainability Act and the fragmentation of information in Central New York. Specific episodes include interviews with advocates for local news and examinations of the impact of journalism on democracy.
Central Current is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newspaper for people building a life in Central New York. Our “It’s Happening Here” podcast explores how local news, local government, and local civic engagement impacts our democracy as a whole.
Sports books, online casinos, and prediction markets are collaborating with local newspapers across the United States to leverage their search rankings, reach new audiences, and share in the profits. Under the new model, award-winning outlets are publishing news articles featuring promo codes for readers to unlock gambling credits with online betting platforms like Kalshi, DraftKings, and others. When a reader signs up, the newspaper receives a payout. Importantly, these are separate from traditional banner ads or popups and are usually not labeled as “sponsored content”. Instead, the publishers of this gambling content claim that it is part of their news production.
Maryland-based journalist Judd Legum identified and documented the growing scale of this phenomenon in his article, “Pulitzer-winning newsrooms are quietly publishing mountains of gambling slop”. He found that Advance Local has produced over 17,000 of these posts since 2022 across their many newspapers including The Oregonian, The Cleveland Plains Dealer, and The Star-Ledger. The city with the highest number of these posts? Syracuse, NY., with Syracuse.com | The Post Standard having published more than 5,800 of these promotional gambling articles between January 2022 and May 2026, many of which targeting residents of other states.
Legum joins host Maximilian Eyle on this episode of It’s Happening Here to discuss the growing relationship between gambling sites and news organizations across the country. He is the founder and author of the Substack newsletter Popular Information.passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill — will impact families here in Central New York.
Related reading:
“Pulitzer-winning newsrooms are quietly publishing mountains of gambling slop”, https://popular.info/p/pulitzer-winning-newsrooms-are-quietly
“The “truth machine” is paying for election lies”, https://popular.info/p/polymarket-sponsoring-election-conspiracies
Editor’s Note: This podcast reflects the opinions and perspectives of the host and guests and is not a product of our editorial staff, including Central Current’s editors and reporters. The program may be edited in post-production for length and clarity.
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