I'm a journalist. I'm chasing a sensation, a scoop. We're all on the same boat, we want to inform the public objectively about the current events, but of course every colleague is a competition. That's just the way it is, whatever anyone says. Journalism is seldom about teamwork. However, just as there is a good cop and a bad cop, there are journalists with and without morals. And the person, whether it's an editor-in-chief, an editor or a publisher who let out that the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Jana Maláčová, said about the current Czech Prime Minister that he was a moron, is simply an unethical pig.
Do you know how the journalist - respondent relationship works? Mostly they know each other. For a long time. I mean in this case, where ministers give interviews day after day. They are usually done by the same journalists, because they rarely change, rather they change the microphone's cover, because those circulate around the newsrooms. They work for this newsroom and another one the next. The point, however, is that the respondent, read as: the politician, knows the face of the journalist. Usually even by name. They're often already on familiar terms, they know their private affairs. It just happens to you when you see someone because of work more often than your mother.
I believe that this is exactly what happened. Maláčová simply told the journalist, after the camera was off, what the hell was happening. Without any scruples. But in a way a woman with her social position cannot express herself in public, because it's simply not socially acceptable. In addition, in front of the staff of a public television! They don't broadcast tabloid content. They're serious. Or at least they try to be. Maláčová trusted this journalist. She sees this staff daily after all.
What had happened, and because of it I think Maláčová aged another ten years, I would've expected from a tabloid, but definitely not from the Czech Television. The poor girl thought, and it really was the case, that the serious interview was over and she just let something slip out of her mouth that most of the nation would yell a few times a day. By that I mean Babiš's non-voters. And there are a lot of them at the moment. Because he made a mess of everything, because as we can see, he doesn't have the situation under control, even though he claims the opposite. The protective measures change from day to day, people are confused and upset. The ministers of all the ministries don't know what are the days or the hours and must adapt in the same way as the people. It's challenging for everyone and without some emotions, it's not possible.
We all know that Czechs are experts in everything in times of crisis and in times of fame. When there's a hockey championship, in pubs it seems that everyone is almost the brother of Jarda Jágr. When the coronavirus came, everyone became a virologist and epidemiologist combined in one. We're all the smartest in the room in front of the TV, and we'd do everything better than the current person in charge.
Although, I personally have my own thoughts about the prime minister and they're not entirely nice, I don't try to push them on others. Like I said, I'm a journalist and nobody cares about my personal opinion. That's just an obvious fact. But as a journalist, I condemn that the Minister's honest words got out to the public. It was a low move and Maláčová is in trouble now. Completely unnecessarily. She still needs to cooperate with Babiš, and she has to get along with him at least on a working level. I'm not saying the lady is without flaws, but she's doing a lot for the people. She has to bite her tongue many times, make concessions, be nice to her boss... She's a woman. She has emotions. She didn't do anything bad, but now she's paying a high price for it.
The person who published her words is a swine without a shred of reason and conscience. I think they'll be surprised next time they need a statement again, preferably exclusively, Maláčová will just show them the finger. Plus, now everyone will be cautious of what they're saying. There will be no more jokes on the side, when you feel, at least for a moment, that politicians are also people and have a sense of humor. If I were Malačová, from now on, I would do interviews only by prior arrangement and with questions sent in advance. Nothing as spontaneous as until now, when a journalist catches you getting out of your lunch break and asks you to comment two sentences about whatever it is at the moment.
So, thanks to the Czech Television's scoop, other journalists will now suffer, waiting half a day for a statement that would normally take two minutes.
Remember that how a journalist, meaning a person, any person, behaves in a work environment, they behave the same in their private life. Once a rat, always a rat. So let's be careful.