Outside the Lines‘ Mark Fainaru-Wada joined the Front & Center podcast in advance of his Sunday investigative piece on the Dallas Cowboys’ apparel business (OTL, 10:00 a.m. ET ESPN 2).
As the OTL piece depicts, Cowboys merchandise is produced all over the world, in some cases in factories that are considered sweatshops.
Fainaru-Wada, his producer Justine Gubar and a crew traveled to Cambodia to visit two of those factories and talk to workers — who make 29 cents per hour — about their working and living conditions.
OTL also sat down with the COO of Cowboys Merchandising Bill Priakos, who admits these are issues that the organization must be more cognizant of.
The 25-minute podcast hosted by David Scott includes discussion of: Fainaru-Wada’s extraordinary career and that of his Pulitzer prize-winning brother Steve (at approx. 1:00 – 4:00); the difficult art of TV production (6:00); background on the reporting of the Cowboys story (7:00); the bleak conditions Cambodian workers live in (13:00); his hopes for affecting change (19:00) and ESPN’s unyielding commitment to journalism (21:00).
