Tabloid politics

The tabloids are blurring the line more and more between serious and sensational news by scoring one "crossover hit" after another. The latest was Aha!'s photo of Jiří Paroubek's car barreling down the highway at 200 km/h - and crossing the double line - en route to his wedding. Today the story even made it into HN, the established business daily. (The upstart freebie E15 didn't mention it.) Libuše Šmuclerová of Ringier threw down the gauntlet to MF Dnes yesterday by declaring on Implus radio that Blesk is now the "watchdog of democracy" and will focus on politicians, while its sister publication, Aha!, will be the one hounding the celebrities. Blesk is paying back MFD for encroaching for years on its own territory. This has dire consequences not only for the media market, but also for politicians. With the two leading dailies vying for their scalps, they'll just have to start behaving less sensationally. [Czech Republic Mladá fronta freesheet newspapers]