Sunday two weeks ago, 9:15 p.m.
Tamar Ish Shalom, presenter of the main edition of News 13 (until next Monday), informs viewers: "21:15, and we're done."
Even a man of peace, a restrained and matter-of-fact approach, fails to hide the joy and the huge smile that takes over her face.
For the viewers at home it was a matter of a quarter of an hour, for me it was one of the most important and fulfilling moments in life.
The edition shortening protest, which I led in the newspaper and on the Internet, was born in the days of the closure.
So, hour after hour, the presenters and reporters repeated the same stressful reports.
The climax came in the main edition, which lasted until 21:45, and with the addition of a commercial break, a hallucinatory and unbearable situation was created, in which prime time begins at 22:00.
The viewers at home also suffered and did not remain indifferent, and after two posts I wrote, more than ten thousand complaints in total were submitted to the Public Complaints Commissioner in the Second Authority.
On December 9, a decision was made: a majority of the members of the Second Authority Council, headed by Yulia Shmalov-Berkovich, ruled that the edition would be shortened in two stages.
In the first phase, it will end at 21:15, and in the second (from April 1, which is not a joke) - at 21:00.
With my hand on my heart - I did not believe that this change, which started in a post on Instagram, is even possible.
It is very difficult to fight the most sophisticated television people in Israel, and this war has reached the highest possible level.
All the CEOs of the TV channels and the news companies showed up, accompanied by vice presidents and legal advisers and armed with a million arguments and arguments.
A sentence that was repeated more than once was: "Death sentence."
They thought of everything - the ratings, the money, and themselves - and I mean only themselves.
Forget the viewers at home.
Along the way, they also tried to silence me.
Make me give up.
When that did not work, the dirt phase from the lower strain began.
One of the speakers before the Second Authority Council claimed that I was a "campaigner", which to me is a big compliment from someone who has run some very successful campaigns, but also a slightly strange argument, coming out of a senior place where much of his work is campaign management.
It was later implied that I was acting out of self-interest, or as one of those involved told me: "Tell me who sent you."
I felt for a moment part of the underworld, but I replied: "The Scouts."
He laughed.
Unlike other areas of coverage, where world orders change or at least help the little citizen, in the field of entertainment and television there are very few such moments.
When you go to bed with Avivit Bar-Zohar, the chances of you waking up with a new law in the Knesset are slim to non-existent.
This time it happened.
But the mission is not yet complete.
Last week, the Minister of Communications appointed a new council, which will soon be subjected to a huge pressure cooker to change the decision made by the outgoing council.
I want to believe that the new council members are coming to serve the viewers, not the TV seniors.
Erans@israelhayom.co.il
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