sex and politics

According to reports by the antigovernment media (thx, dr. fil), Prime minister Janez Janša made an offer to Boško Šrot. If Šrot were to put Delo back under government SDS control willingly (and, presumably, immediatelly), Boško Šrot will not get arrested. Reports vary from this point on. Delo writes that Šrot categorically refused the offer, while Dnevnik at first reported he was seriously considering it in exchange for total control of Mercator retail chain - which just happens to be the largest distributor of Laško beer. The PM’s cabinet denied the story promptly. But they would, wouldn’t they?

“Eventually me and a friend sort of drifted into S and M…” (source and source)

Wow. I mean. WOW! Holy shit! How stupid can you get? Janša made that very same deal with Boško Šrot in August 2005 (almost three years ago), when Janša and his people got managerial and editorial control over Delo and got rid of Zoran Janković at the helm of Mercator, while Šrot got most of Mercator and a carte blanche for acquiring Laško Brewery. Two years later Boško Šrot double-crossed Janša and put Delo back under his own control, completing takeover of Laško brewery and becoming 1.6 billion euros richer.

And now Janša wants to do it all over again?. Sheesh.

One of the less discused traits of our prime minister is his tendency to repeat his mistakes. But with this he is dropping his pants, bending over and saying “Again, please…”

A rather nice flash animation on Reporter’s website

Remeber Silverster Šurla and all the brouhaha about Delo, Mag, Laško and Andrijana Starina Kosem?

Well, one of the results (apart from Delo becoming rabidly anti-government) is Tuesday’s launch of Reporter, a weekly magazine which promises to deliver a hundred pages of high quality content every week. Bringing attention to stories that are intentionally or otherwise overlooked by other media, Reporter team will conform to the highest journalistic and ethical standards.

So much for the pitch. How about reality?

Naturally, too early to say. Hats off to Šurla & Co. for having the balls to create a new magazine, although it seems obvious that they were driven by revenge because Mag magazine was “taken from them” rather than by a healthy journalistic drive. But it is of no matter - a fit of anger can be a good thing if channelled correctly.

Obviously Reporter is aimed at Mag’s “previous” readers, those who (I presume) gravitate to the right of political centre. Which is cool. However, as Reporter is trying to fill the void created by Mag’s new (wider and more general) orientation, it is - in my opinion - trying to emulate Mag as we knew it a bit too hard. I realize that it was a rush-job and that the team didn’t exactly dwell on the format of the magazine, but only re-created the one they knew, but (and I’m speaking out of experience here) once you start, it’s extremely hard to upgrade your design and layout.

Reporter does not offer anything new, neither in terms of design nor in terms of content. Which I think is a wasted opportunity. I assume Mag was not exactly heaven on Earth and one of the reasons for Delo buying the magazine in 2005 (while Janša and Šrot were still buddies) was to keep it from folding economicaly once again. So if Reporter is aiming for that same target population, it is in deep trouble from the beginning. Which would be a shame - assuming that its stated goals of proffesionalism and high standards are real, and for the moment I’m more than prepared to give Šurla & Co. the benefit of the doubt.

So, regardless of its political affiliation or orientation, I keep my fingers crossed for Reporter. A hundred pages every week is a lot, both in terms of money and content. And hopefully, the latter will be of interest to people who didn’t read Mag before and don’t read it now either.

There’s only one problem. He won’t.

Given the fact that mayor Zoran Janković and his list of city councilors are the only non-parlamentarian political force in Slovenia to be reckoned with on the national level, his continuously rumoured running for parlimanetnary office in autumn is frequently the topic of choice for journalists and pundits all over Slovenia. Despite the fact that Janković has continuously denined any such future move.

The title reads “Jankovič Will Run With Another List” (source, if not already changed)

Now, why would they run a story like that? Because they skipped class when sense od humour was being handed out. In the video you’ll see Janković give a straigth answer to a journalist’s question about whether he’ll run or not. And after Zoki takes a jibe at the press, pengovsky (smart as ever) decides to light up the mood and asks “what about any other list?”. A valid question, but it wasn’t meant entirely seriously. And neither was the answer:

Everyone got it. Except for RTV SLO webiste, where the team probably spent the afternoon asking themselves how could it be that noone else picked up the story. We’ll I’ve got some real news for you guys: It was a joke! Lighten up And stop transcribing verbatim what everyone else says. Use your own head!