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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsESPN writer takes all-expenses-paid trip to Qatar, loves Qatar...
All those problems you thought Qatar's World Cup facedindentured servitude, bribery allegations, unplayable heat, nonexistent infrastructureit turns out they can all be made to go away with a stay in a nice hotel and a photo op with Alan Shearer...
Phil Ball, a writer for ESPNFC, just got back from four delightful days in Doha, and he's a convert. The "witch hunt" against the nation's World Cup bid, he says, comes from an "anti-Qatar brigade" of journalists who haven't been there. Not like Phil! Phil's seen the real Qatar. On "an all-expenses paid trip." Expenses paid by whom? Phil doesn't say. But he attended the Aspire4Sport Conference, and the conference's principal sponsor is the Qatar 2022 World Cup Committee.
http://deadspin.com/espn-writer-takes-all-expenses-paid-trip-to-qatar-love-1469590906
ESPN scrubbed the original story, but it is archived here:
http://pdfcast.org/pdf/give-qatar-a-chance
enlightenment
(8,830 posts)How much was he paid to write that? ESPN should fire him - that is journalistic malfeasance.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)They would have fired half of their writers and closed their doors years ago...
enlightenment
(8,830 posts)What was I thinking??
They probably have a Tebow status update coming up soon.
DinahMoeHum
(21,783 posts)(snip)
Moralism about bias and objectivity in journalism, rightly or wrongly, is a peculiarly American concern. Specifically, it is a late 20th Century American concern. Mores elsewhere are a bit different. ESPN FC, though owned by ESPN, is an international website. The salient issue is not that a writer took an expenses-paid trip, which is noted at the beginning of the piece. Its that the reasoning and conclusions reached are, at best, dumb and, at worst, heartless. No reader was misled about the nature of the reporting.
(snip)
Kurska
(5,739 posts)My lord, the iron knee.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)and that their bribes for committee votes (along with Russia's for 2018) must have been WAY more than other conventional countries...
That's one of the reasons England and the U.S. were so hot after the official selections...They couldn't come out and say they shelled out big cash for promised votes only to get double-crossed....
And of course there is the unspoken joke that the Qatar national team (which will be full of nationalized imports) gets an automatic bid as host, stealing a slot from a deserving team...
TeamPooka
(24,221 posts)When they are done competing these athletes party hard.
The rampant sex and drunken tomfoolery that goes on in the Olympic Village between buff athletes of all nations is a well known fact of life in that world to the point of huge bowls of free condoms in the lobby of every dorm they stay in.
delta17
(283 posts)Also, the military base allows 3 drinks a day. Are they really banning alcohol at the village?
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)on the mirrored story.