Final Word from Thursday, November 14, 2002
Václav Klaus told F1 Frekvence 1 radio yesterday that he had nothing to do with Super but that in one sense he would defend it. At least Super, unlike some allegedly serious newspapers, didn't hide the fact that it was a tabloid, he said. One of the "hidden" tabloids that he undoubtedly had in mind, MF Dnes, wrote this week in an exposé on the mafia that Italian companies are buying up real estate in the CR and laundering dirty money. It gave no proof for this serious allegation. When our sister publication, the Fleet Sheet, picked up the story in its daily news bulletin, the Italian embassy protested, suggesting that such vague allegations should be ignored. This gets back to what Klaus said yesterday and raises the question: When a "hidden" tabloid masquerades as a serious newspapers, how can readers know when to take it seriously and when to ignore it?