Axel Springer CEO and chairman Mathias Döpfner addressed a report Tuesday that said he emailed executives in 2020 suggesting they should pray for Donald Trump re-election, noting the email was sent before the denial of election results and the Jan. 6 capitol riots.
But he also said he specifically supported the Trump administration’s decision to sue Google.
“This example shows that sometimes you need context in order to understand,” the CEO said at Vox Media’s Code Conference in Los Angeles. “When I received the breaking news that the Trump administration was suing Google … that was a moment when, I think, probably most publishers around the world thought this is a smart way to give credit to Trump.”
Döpfner’s comments come hours after The Washington Post published a 2020 email in which the CEO asked his closest executives, “Do we all want to get together for an hour in the morning on November 3 and pray that Donald Trump will again become President of the United States of America?”
While Döpfner initially denied sending the email, he eventually admitted, “That is me. That could be,” to the Post, noting that he may have sent the email “as an ironic, provocative statement in the circle of people that hate Donald Trump.”
“So I would never … try to influence journalists,” he said Tuesday, denying assertions that his personal political views would shape news coverage in Axel Springer’s many outlets. “Nobody would would even think that that could be meant like that.”
Döpfner also clarified that this email happened “before the denial of electoral results and before the struggle for the Capitol.”
Although the email might have been sent in jest, Döpfner claimed that Trump has made the “right moves” on five key issues, according to the Post, including “‘defending the free democracies’ against Russia and China, pushing NATO allies to up their contributions, ‘tax reforms’ and Middle East peace efforts, as well as challenging tech monopolies.” However, the German executive noted that the former president fell short on what he believes is a sixth key issue: climate change.
These views position Döpfner, who purchased Politico last year, in a complex spot, as he hopes to battle what he sees as the polarization of the press in the U.S., noting that legacy media has shifted to the left and conservative outlets have begun accepting “alternative facts” in an interview with The Post.
“We want to prove that being nonpartisan is actually the more successful positioning,” he told The Post, calling it his “biggest and most contrarian bet.”
“Good journalism should always reflect, and critically reflect, politics,” he said Tuesday. “[It] should never try to do politics, [it] should never be in one camp. But we see of course, particularly in the United States, but also in Europe, we see the trend of polarization that is exemplified by a lot of media that think, for a good cause, they have to be in one camp, they have to basically support one political side of the candidate. I think that is a big misunderstanding.”