Final Word from Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Where's the scandal if Bison & Rose PR agency represented Zdeněk Bakala in the privatization of OKD and was given a good price on a mountain inn as part of the payment for services rendered? In and of itself, there is no scandal. An agency represented a client and was given a sort of in-kind success bonus. When MFD ran the story last Fri. as its lead, it was what it didn't say that was the intended scandal. The suggestion was that Miloš Růžička of B&R and lawyer Radek Pokorný used their connections to the finance minister at the time, Bohuslav Sobotka, to help Bakala rig the privatization of OKD. If this were true, it would be a scandal of biblical proportions and would require the prime minister to resign. The problem is that MFD provided no proof, and what little specific information it did provide was disputed vehemently by Růžička. Instead of a major scandal, what we have is a public pissing match, with no clear winner. [Czech Republic NWR public relations Mladá fronta dnes Mafra Kladenka]
Glossary of difficult words
to render - to provide (a service);
in and of itself - considered alone;
in kind - (of payment) in goods or services as opposed to money;
lead - main story;
to rig - to manage or conduct (something) fraudulently so as to produce a result or situation that is advantageous to a particular person;
vehemently - in a forceful, passionate, or intense way;
pissing match/contest - (vulgar) an argument that goes back and forth between two individuals but without resolution.