Final Word from Monday, October 23, 2017

The Third Resistance ended with the fall of Communism in 1989; the Fourth Resistance began with Andrej Babiš's victory in the 2017 parliamentary elections. Unlike the Third, the Fourth is led by the media. Despite ČSSD's devastating election defeat, Czech TV's news department remains under the steadfast influence of the person most responsible for the destruction of this 139-year-old party, lawyer Radek Pokorný. In its first big post-election analysis, ČT24 invited six journalists to its panel, four of whose careers have been dependent on money from Pokorný's two biggest swindles, ČEZ and OKD. Agrofert had the proper representation on the ČT24 panel (33%), but no media other than those supporting ČSSD a.s. served as the opposition. The Fourth Resistance is being headed by Pokorný's Czech TV, Zdeněk Bakala's Economia, Martin Roman's Czech News Center and Ivo Lukačovič's Seznam. Don't be fooled. It isn't about liberal democracy. It's about money. [Czech Republic Television Reflex Lidové noviny Deník Referendum Erik Tabery Jindřich Šídlo Bohumil Pečinka Jakub Patočka Petr Kamberský Jaroslav Plesl]