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The stick, the carrot and the red line Israel today

2021-11-19T09:28:48.930Z


Reports of violence against journalists always go through the position filter • When it is convenient and appropriate, even an elderly woman's stick, accompanied by a serious face of presenters, can open the news edition


On Tuesday evening, the

presenters of News Edition 13, Tamar Ish-Shalom and Udi Segal, appeared in front of the cameras.

Standing, dressed in black, in the face of a national disaster, and with an address along the screen - "Journalists under attack" - the two came out with a firm message.

"Before we continue covering the trial," Ish-Shalom began, referring to the Netanyahu trial. "Today a red line was crossed again. .


"This is not the first time that our reporters and other channels have been attacked on the ground," Segal continued, "when they are just trying to do their job. In recent years there has been an increase in the frequency of these cases, which are an attempt to intimidate reporters and commentators."


"It is impossible to detach what happened in Jerusalem from the incitement of public figures and politicians against the media and against specific journalists. Exactly 24 hours ago, Netanyahu tweeted, and not for the first time, this cartoon against the three new editions on various channels in Israel," Ish-Shalom told Netanyahu. After all, every child knows that there is no incitement without some Netanyahu in the background. On the screen was seen a cartoon in which two arms emerge from a television set and fill the viewer's head with garbage.


One might think, the viewer wonders - it's all a cartoon about media, but then Segal puts it bluntly: "It's incidentally an adaptation of a cartoon by an antisemitic Iranian illustrator." Congratulations! Netanyahu spreads anti-Semitic Iranian propaganda! The viewer breathes a sigh of relief, and Segal signs: "It will not deter us."


There is no doubt that attacking a journalist is an improper event, but before we get to it, it might be worth focusing on what preceded the stick, and that is the severe verbal violence mentioned. Cursed Glickman and called. I heard "you are a criminal," and there must have been other harsh words. It does not match the barrage of disgrace and threats that another News 13 reporter, Avishai Ben-Haim, snatched from Balfour protesters. There was a much more impressive creative passion: "Maniac, we'll drag your body with the vans, run away, run away, run away, son of a bitch, Goebbels, son of death you are," and all in less than 20 seconds. News 13 did upload the video, but only after a video that was not fake. Maybe they questioned Ben Haim's credibility, you know. No one thought about a solemn statement in a festive studio and accusing Netanyahu of incitement. And no one has ever tried to claim that Balfour demonstrators are incited by politicians and public figures.

Staff is accurate when

it detects an increase in the frequency of attacks on journalists. Just what - this is a right-wing journalist, so who cares. The Channel 20 broadcast station in Habima Square in Tel Aviv was a constant target for interference, cursing, and even actual assaults. One of them - Laughter of Fate - was also directed at Idit Silman, who was interviewed there before defecting to the right to a camp he had never incited. I also had the privilege of sitting there and broadcasting through a group of protesters with megaphones, who, although interfering with the broadcast and cursing me as long as their spirits were in them, should not be suspected of being silenced by anyone. It just comes naturally to them. It is inconceivable that an agitated mob that voted for Lapid or Ganz could exist.


The instigator who attacked Kara with a stick, who was condemned from floor to wall, is an older woman, and with a generous estimate - no more than a meter and a half tall. She is someone who, if she opens News 13, will find there an entire system that is entirely dedicated to defaming Netanyahu, and which the only reporter who tries to protect him, like Avishai Ben-Haim, is abandoned by the system to his fate. And it is possible that the lady with the stick is furious at the court reporters who rejoice over the legal moves against Netanyahu and continue to despise her legal and democratic choice and that of another million people.


In a decent media world, I would join Internal Security Minister Amar Bar-Lev and Communications Minister Yoaz Handel, who convened a summit to condemn the incited elderly woman. "We will not tolerate an attack on journalists or any other media outlet. The pictures we saw today are a complete shame and must not be passed on to the agenda," Bar-Lev said. I of course disagree with them, as I do not tolerate assault even by someone who is not a media person. To tell the truth - I'm not crazy about profanity either, and I say that as someone who was suspended for a week from a GLC broadcast, because I called President Rivlin "rude".

But we do not live in a

decent media

world

and it turns out that under certain conditions it is possible to apologize for violence against journalists, if the attacker has a good reason, or authentic pain. And when I say "authentic" I mean the pain that is common on News 13.


July 2020 One of the Balfour demonstrators dropped the microphone from News 13 reporter Yossi Eli, and another demonstrator dropped the microphone from Avishai Ben Haim who was standing next to him. Then he enlisted and called with all his journalistic power - not against the attack on media people, God forbid, but to protect the attackers. "The attacker is an artist, a musician, an unemployed man, a socialist, expecting a second child, hopeless. He has reached the end and vented his anger on the media," Kara tweeted compassionately.


And who sat across from reading in Studio 13 and heard this letter of defense about the violent protester if not the uninhibited Udi Segal?

To read itself it was important to emphasize that a demonstrator - who came to a drunken demonstration - should not be suspected of being a plant of the right.

News 13 even bothered to interview him.

In an interview, the attacker explained that he was neither violent nor right-wing, but erred in "vulgar behavior," which he claimed stemmed from "something shocking is happening here in our country."

So they did not think in News 13 that it was violence, not even horror - just vulgarity.

And a shock from the right things.


Kara was not satisfied with the written defense of the violent protester but also added to reassurance: "And all in all, Udi, it was a glorious protest, a beautiful protest."

In doing so, he demonstrated an important moral principle: If a protest is in our opinion, we will defend a few blows to journalists.

And if not - incitement, Iran and Netanyahu. 

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-11-19

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