Final Word from Monday, November 2, 2020
A tried-and-true formula of the tabloid press, as we wrote last year, is to present related facts so as to evoke the impression that there is a causal relationship, when in fact there might not be one. This gets the desired message out while maintaining the ability to deny that anything libelous was printed. "We never said he stole the money! We just said he was there when it was stolen." Blesk is an expert at this kind of language, and its editor-in-chief, Radek Lain, demonstrated the skill again in today's edition. He criticized those who speculated that the photos of the late-night meeting of Roman Prymula and Jaroslav Faltýnek might have been the work of the BIS counterintelligence agency or the Agáta eavesdropping device. A local resident might have simply given Blesk a tip, he said, but he never stated that this is indeed what happened. It was a classic nondenial of the kind tabloid editors, defense attorneys and cheating husbands excel at. And it just raises more suspicions. [ Czech Republic health minister ANO MP ]
Glossary of difficult words
nondenial - a statement that appears to deny that something is true but does not in fact constitute a rebuttal of the specific claim or accusation;
tried-and-true - denoting something that has proven in the past to be effective or reliable;
libelous - containing or constituting a published false statement that is damaging to a person's reputation.