Politico’s Mathias Döpfner, and Sam Knight Reports from Qatar

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2022

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The staff writer Sam Knight was in Qatar recently, reporting on the World Cup, where, despite years of controversy, a familiar rhythm of upsets, triumphs, and defeats has taken hold. But he finds that the geographical shift toward an Arab nation may benefit the sport. Plus, David Remnick talks with Mathias Döpfner, the C.E.O. of the German news publisher Axel Springer, which acquired Politico for a billion dollars last year. Döpfner relishes taking provocative stances, but has been a vocal critic of media outlets that he says are increasingly catering to partisan audiences. “I think it is not about objectivity or neutrality,” he notes. “It is about plurality.” Politico, Döpfner says, is taking “a kind of contrarian bet: if everybody polarizes, the few who do differently may have the better future.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNWC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:09.9	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Remnick.
0:12.8	The World Cup in Cutter this year was preceded by years and years of controversy, charges
0:18.0	of shameless corruption and mistreatment of migrant workers.
0:22.4	But then the games finally began.
0:25.8	Staff writer Sam Knight reported for us on the tournament.
0:30.6	The first 10 days of the World Cup in Cutter were soccer as it is, rather than as you want
0:35.4	it to be.
0:36.8	It was vinyl, closed and transactional.
0:41.6	I saw some terrific goals.
0:43.8	I drank coke and paid with my visa card.
0:46.4	I lined up for the added ass store.
0:49.3	Everything was brand new, air conditioned and covered in an almost invisible layer of
0:54.3	pale desert dust.
0:57.0	Sam just got back from Cutter and he shared some of his impressions from on the ground and
1:01.3	in the stands.
1:03.1	This was my first World Cup.
1:06.1	Yeah.
1:07.1	Growing up with the tournament, watching it on TV, but this was the first time I'd ever
1:10.6	traveled to see it in person.
1:12.4	There was something about this particular edition in Cutter, which was just irresistible
1:16.0	to try and explore.
	...

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