Final Word from Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Vladimír Račko and Stanislav Stěhule are making the rounds of the media telling how CEO Gabriel Berdár of Český Telecom fired shots at them after he mistook them for the men who beat him with a rod. As Euro noted, the sensationalist media have paid more attention to Berdár's gunslinging than to the beating he took. The goal seems to be to use the shooting incident to finish the job Berdár's attackers messed up. Like in the John Bolton case, Berdár is being branded as a hothead who is unfit for office because of his personality. If hotheadedness disqualified a person for a leadership position, there'd be plenty of vacancies. Račko and Stěhule have their own agenda (they were driving under the influence and without a license) and shouldn't be allowed to dictate who Telecom's CEO will be. Neither should the media. That's for Telecom's new owners to decide. [Czech Republic tabloid Telefonica]