Final Word from Monday, January 16, 2017
Why did Vladimir Putin insist for months that Russia didn't have any regular soldiers in Crimea? For the same reason that Barack Obama insisted for months that there were no U.S. special forces in Syria. Everyone who was paying attention knew they were prevaricating, but they had national-security priorities to defend, and if they had told the truth, it could have been seen as an admission of a violation of international or domestic law. Czech TV is behaving the same way in the face of allegations by the RRTV Broadcast Council that its U.S. election-night coverage was biased toward Hillary Clinton. It didn't require a careful analysis to see the systematic prejudice against Donald Trump, yet ČT's news team is insisting that it had no such intention. It would probably prefer to stand up tall and declare that it was merely supporting a good cause by trashing Trump. That, though, would be flouting the law. So it's still in the stage of denying the obvious. [Czech Republic Television United States]
Glossary of difficult words
to prevaricate - to speak or act in an evasive way;
systematic - methodical; done or acting according to a fixed plan or system;
to trash someone - (informal) to criticize severely;
to flout - openly to disregard (a rule, law, or convention).