ESPN writer takes all-expenses-paid trip to Qatar, loves Qatar...
All those problems you thought Qatar's World Cup faced—indentured servitude, bribery allegations, unplayable heat, nonexistent infrastructure—it 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
= new reply since forum marked as read
(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. It’s 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)
on the mirrored story. 
