Jack Nolan

Profile on Eric Best

Eric Best seems to be filling a void that not many others are content to fill. He’s giving English speakers Czech news. Utilizing Simple supply and demand—the English tongues want to know, just as much as the Czechs, what is going on politically and economically in the Czech Republic. 

Since 1991 Eric Best has put out two publications, the Fleet Sheet and the Final Word. Fleet sheet is a daily publication that covers the day’s top headlines in politics and business. Eric’s other publication is the Final Word, and is produced Monday through Thursday. The Final word, as Eric puts it, is an attempt to target a wider market. His work comes at a time in when many news agencies are struggling against the new and huge wave of Internet access. Eric, while acknowledging these struggles, says that he and his company are doing just fine here in the Czech Republic.

Introduced and self admitted as a controversial writer, Eric Best came off as nothing of the sort. One’s writing and views are distant from their personality, but Eric didn’t seem controversial in the slightest. He could even have been described as meek at times. Maybe if we delved into something with more of a controversial side we would have seen it; topics mainly stayed on his business and journalism in today’s age. 

Eric Best came across as well mannered and sincere—making him easy to converse with. He seemed educated and articulate, and most important interested in other people. At the end of his presentation, he wanted to know where we all went to school, and why we chose Prague. To me, this shows something far more important than intelligence manners or sincerity. A quality that is underappreciated, and really goes unnoticed a long way. They were warming and a change of pace compared to any other presentation I’ve seen in a class.