David Remnick, the editor of the The New Yorker, has been hired by NBC Olympics boss and former “Today” EP Jim Bell for NBC’s Sochi coverage.
SI.com reports the Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist, a Russophile who is fluent in Russian, will offer commentary during coverage of the opening ceremony February 7 and also contribute to NBC News in other select spots.
On why he’s adding his voice to the Olympic games, Remnick cited an 18th century writer/philosopher turning down an invitation… to an orgy.
Asked why he decided to join NBC’s coverage of the Sochi Games next February, David Remnick recalled a famous Voltaire quote about turning down an invitation to an orgy, having attended one the previous night for the first time.
“You know the expression once a philosopher, twice a pervert?” said Remnick, in a phone interview on Saturday. “I think in life you ought to try something once if it is honest work and does not interfere with your main job.”
Bell thinks Remnick will bring value to the news surrounding the Olympics.
“We are facing an Olympics that have a number of issues around them — substantial, meaty, news issues,” Bell told Sports Illustrated. “For us to be able to have an opportunity to address them with someone like David made perfect sense.”
In Remnick, NBC gets a journalist who knows his stuff when it comes to Russia: his Pulitzer came for his 1994 book about the fall of the Soviet Empire.