Final Word from Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Jiří Paroubek continued his attack on the media this week by indirectly accusing TV Nova of rigging a viewer survey. Viewers said overwhelmingly that Mirek Topolánek won the Sun. debate, and even leftist Právo agreed, but Paroubek refused to concede defeat. It's true that the results of such polls are rigged, but not by TV Nova. Politicians understand that the vote in a close debate can be skewed by spending as little as Kč 10,000 on phone calls. Paroubek would have done better to accuse ODS of clogging the phone lines. Instead, he gave his critics another reason to accuse him of Bolshevism. When even Právo started criticizing Stanislav Gross, his position first as premier then as ČSSD chair became increasingly untenable. Paroubek isn't going anywhere yet, but it's a sign of trouble when Právo runs editorials two days in a row finding fault with his handling of recent events.[Czech Republic premier ODS chairman television manipulation]