"Arad Nir harms Israeli citizens"
Ran Reznik, one of the top reporters on health issues (Israel Today) on a podcast of the Israel Press Institute, like you've never heard: Arad Nir?
- "Took a position on the verge of corona denial."
bismuth?
- "Does not argue with the publications surrounding his dismissal."
Sarah Netanyahu?
"I had great meetings with her"
interview
David Wertheim
16/06/2022
Thursday, 16 June 2022, 14:18
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Video by Ren Reznik (Walla, Reuven Castro)
"We are on the verge of a renewed eruption of the corona, it is clear. I hope it is not a new wave. What is frightening about this eruption is the public consciousness. The whole thesis of the Minister of Health and the Prime Minister was that there is no longer a corona. Forget that even before the last eruption, there were still 1,000-2,000 verified here per day, "says Israel Today health correspondent Ran Reznik.
Reznik has been covering the field of health for about 30 years, of which more than a decade, as mentioned, in Israel today.
Prior to that, he served as a health correspondent for the Yedioth Ahronoth group and Haaretz, where he began his career at the Ha'ir local newspaper and then in the daily newspaper.
Over the years, Resnik has published articles on corruption cases in the Israeli health system.
In some cases, senior doctors have been prosecuted following his investigations.
In a conversation on the Israel Press Institute's Tiktok podcast, Reznik - winner of the Sokolov Prize for Written Press - talks about working for a newspaper that until recently was considered a recruit for Prime Minister Netanyahu, the TV contestants, the meetings with Sarah Netanyahu and the debt he has to Gal Ochowski.
A small part of the conversation is presented here in writing.
Listen to the full conversation.
"We did a good job. We will do well"
"Surveys have always shown that viewers and surfers are interested in health because they perceive the field as something to do with their lives and also their deaths. I agree that until Corona it was more considered a political reporter."
The field of healthcare in the media has been abandoned over the years and in the last three years has experienced a renaissance and developed editions.
For you it is a positive thing.
"It's inaccurate, the traditional and non-traditional press devoted quite a bit to health even before the Corona. Always less than politics and security, but polls have always shown that viewers and surfers are interested in health because they perceive the field as something to do with their lives and deaths. To be a political reporter. "
not only this.
I do not remember when before Corona Health Item opened editions.
"So I remember, because it's close to my heart. I was invited to News 2 because there was a development of a carnivorous bacterium in Israel, there were items on doctors who took bribes and opened editions. It was. "They have all become health reporters - the political reporters and foreign and security commentators have also become Corona reporters."
The general feeling is that the health reporters overall were quite obedient to the establishment, to the Ministry of Health.
This is not a compliment.
"I think in general the health reporters did - we did - a good job. We will do well. I do not think we were obedient. It was a very difficult role in the face of a wave of vaccine opponents and corona deniers, some journalists themselves and some doctors themselves. Yoram Les in the first wave, and about how they gave him a stage.
"There are also campaigns against journalists.
"In one of the talkbacks in Israel today, I was called by names around the Nazi terms. But I think most of the public appreciates the health reports and there was a very big task here. I am not an epidemiologist, but it was not just an Israeli matter.
"It's enough to remember how they gave him a stage."
Prof. Yoram Les (Photo: Screenshot, Network 13)
"Like discussing the issue - whether Auschwitz was or not"
"I know Arad Nir and I respect him very much. But I met him at some panel at the time and when we met instead of shaking his hand I punched him or elbow him, and he treated it like it was a sin against humanity."
One of the claims is that you have caught a uniform line, also on the issue of vaccines.
The government decided, but how you as journalists did not doubt.
"I do not think a journalist can or should be objective. He should be fair and bring the full picture. I discontinued the vaccines as a special case in the health coverage where our job is not to bring both sides. It is like you require me to father both sides in Holocaust deniers, "Or people who want to promote pedophilia. I think it would be a disgrace if two people came and had a discussion about whether or not there was Auschwitz. And I compare that to the resistance to vaccines - so much so."
By the way Renaissance, the main foreign commentators in the commercial channels, Arad Nir and Nadav Eyal, reinvented themselves within a few months as Corona authorities.
There is a statement here that expresses a certain superficiality.
What does this say about the field actually if within a year you can become a leading player in it?
"I do not think they did it superficially, certainly not Nadav Eyal. A global epidemic hitting the world like this - also economically - it was asked that they deal with it. I think Arad Nir took such a position, on the verge of anti-vaccines / Corona denial - that caused "Damage to the public, to that extent. Damage to the public's compliance with the restrictions or protections of the Corona."
Severe criticism of your colleague.
I remember he actually supported vaccines, but did criticize what he defined as hysteria in restrictions.
"Look at his statements he made on the broadcast. I want to say something that is most important: protecting Corona is not just about vaccines. Prime Minister Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz also presented the latest wave, the Omicron as easy. But over 2,000 Israelis died in it. It is not. easy.
"I know Arad Nir and I respect him very much. But I met him at some panel at the time and when we met instead of shaking his hand I punched him or elbow him, and he treated it like it was a sin against humanity."
(News 12 reported: "Arad Nir did not take a position. He does not deny Corona and certainly does not oppose vaccines and even vaccinated himself. As a well-known journalist, Nir examined the facts and presented a complex picture to viewers as expected Choose to say things that have nothing to do with reality ").
How about a trade in information that some hospital spokespersons do quite a few times at the expense of their patients' medical confidentiality.
This was especially noticeable in the story of Miri Aloni.
"I do not think hospitals make ill-use of patients to publicize themselves. Look, I also use patients when I am approached with complaints about the health system, without exposing them of course, because it serves me to highlight the affair. There was another problem in Ichilov, more interesting .
"Look at his statements he made on the broadcast."
Arad Nir (Photo: screenshot, Keshet 12)
What you should know about doctors in Israel
You have had quite a few investigations on the health system in which you acted in front of very strong and very connected forces, what shocked you the most?
"The affair of abandoning the surgeons of Dr. Vladimir Yakirevich, the heart surgeon at Ichilov who turned out to have come out during surgeries and left them with interns, and took bribes.
I was amazed at the intensity of the ongoing harm to patients even though the doctors in the ward complained about it to the management of Ometz Hospital - I mention, these are specialized doctors whose careers depend on it - the hospital management headed by Gabi Barbash then deceived and teased it. Another affair is the media campaign against restrictions Mental patients in the psychiatric hospitals. A joint journey for me and the Neubach Foundation, then in the Broadcasting Authority. Every day for two years we dealt with this, and achieved very significant results - including the establishment of a committee of the Ministry of Health. "A person who exists. To tie a person in all limbs for hours. It did not happen in Africa but in Israel."
What is most important is that you do not know or talk enough in the context of Israeli medicine?
"The discovery is that there is nothing that sets them apart. There are about 30,000 registered doctors in the State of Israel. And I will say the obvious: they are like all human beings. There is a small group of doctors whose financial interests and egos can overshadow anything even if it hurts patients "God forbid death. The public does not necessarily know it. This group is small but big enough that we will have to warn about it. This discovery is always shocking again."
"Great meals with him and the Netanyahu couple."
Bnei Zipper (Photo: Screenshot, here 11)
"Netanyahu was a really good prime minister"
"One of the people I wrote about quite a bit was Prof. Zeev Rothstein, who accompanied all my journalistic work in letters to my editors-in-chief in Haaretz, Yedioth and Israel today in order to discredit me. It did not help him."
You were a reporter in the city, then of Haaretz, from there you moved to Yedioth Ahronoth and since 2011 you are the health reporter of Israel Today.
In a three-decade perspective, give me on one foot the differences between the papers.
"My freedom in Israel today is no different from the previous systems, from the country where I grew up, from the city newspaper where I started and for a short time in the magazines of the Yedioth Ahronoth group. I was never restricted. You know, one of the people I wrote about was Prof. Zeev Rothstein who accompanied All my journalistic work in letters to my editors-in-chief in Haaretz, Yedioth and Israel today with the aim of discrediting me. It did not help him. I mention this because he is an important, connected, strong man and managed the strongest hospital in Israel then - Sheba. In that sense, there is no difference between the newspapers and I received backing from everyone. "
You work for a newspaper that for a decade out of the 11 years you have been in, there has not been a single negative headline about an incumbent prime minister.
Did not feel strange?
"Listen, this is inaccurate, there were things that blended in with political issues. There was a doctors' struggle that was extensively reviewed and was related to Netanyahu as prime minister, there was a struggle against Litzman, I was not touched by this matter at all."
No one knows what your political position is, but you know you are gay.
Is there a problem with conducting this in a right-wing newspaper that has sided with the right-wing ultra-Orthodox government for many years?
"You do not really think that a gay man should automatically think that Netanyahu is a bad prime minister. I do not think that homophobia or anything is associated with him. I define myself as a central figure, and I will risk my life and say that I think Netanyahu was a really good prime minister. My good friend Benny Zipper, and maybe that helped, too. "
And what do you think of the former prime minister's wife?
"There were some wonderful, fascinating meetings with Sarah Netanyahu. And Netanyahu himself is a fascinating man in general."
Let's refer to Bismuth's dismissal, and to that desolation after, the paper completely changes line and direction.
"In all the newspapers I worked for, editors changed and political motives were never attributed to it. But I'm not naive, you gave an explanation and wrote it in many columns. I do not argue about it, but I do not share that feeling."
Gate on the secretary of a lesbian kibbutz.
Ochowski (Photo: Reuven Castro)
The heart with Ochowski
"At the time I was also working as an auxiliary in Ichilov's nursing ward, and after some article, one of the nurses who knew me told me in disgust that she had found out I was gay, and she talked about it in disgust. It was not trivial."
You were the first reporter to cover the proud community, long before the revolution.
Describe the feeling then, the acquaintance with Gal Ochowski that actually opened the door for you to the press.
"Gal Ohovsky hired me to work in the city, which was then or considered itself the most important newspaper in Israel, and very quickly appointed me a reporter for the affairs of the proud community. Spring on Rosh Hanikra. It sounds like a curiosity, but that's how he perceived himself, probably in the affairs of the proud community. And he contributed a lot to the acceptance of the proud community in Israel.
"By the way, I was told in disgust that she found out I was gay, and she talked about it in disgust.
It was not trivial.
"Gal Ochowski led the fight, so with Hezi Laskeli peace be upon him. And I hope he gets out of the bunker very quickly. Because I love him so much and my heart owes him with him. I want him to come out publicly clean."
Were you surprised by the complaints against him?
"I was surprised, but at least some of the things sounded neither criminal nor serious to me. I had an argument about that with the Neubach Foundation, I told her I had a close and true friend who should think about the victims if they were, but my heart is with him. She did not agree with me."
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Ran Reznik
Israel today
Benjamin Netanyahu
Gal Ochowski
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