Public broadcasting is the most beautiful gift a country can give to its citizens.
That's why you have to keep it like a pot of fondue for ten diners that you got for a wedding and that you would throw away, but it's not nice to insult the uncles.
Public broadcasting is a protective wall against radio and television barbarism, because only public money can produce cultural quality and political fairness.
The juxtaposition of the words "broadcasting" and "public" is a talisman against populist atrocities such as private media channels, which make a living based on the degree of demand for their goods.
Public broadcasting is qualitative by definition, and therefore exempt from success.
After many years of one and only TV channel that cost the taxpayers a billion shekels a year, and that failed in competition with private channels that do not enjoy a huge budget and immediately wastefully on the tap, the public broadcasting corporation "Kan" was established.
Instead of the toll - we collected its budget directly from the tax money, and an extensive cut was made in it, to assure us that this time it will be cheap: only a quarter of a billion shekels a year.
divorce.
But even this round the public insisted on storing the fondue pot in the warehouse.
True, "Kan" also has programs that people watch of their own free will.
But since even with its new name and new budget the corporation still lags behind the commercial channels - not many know that under the auspices of its unpopularity, positions from the best radical and left end of the spectrum flourish in this rich and remote bed.
And how will we know?
We do not consume the corporation's broadcasts.
And what will we do in protest?
Will we stop paying?
We have already been deducted from the slip.
Shall we stop watching?
We have already stopped, but go ahead and abandon a product that is indifferent to demand.
Only in the last few weeks did "Kan" demonstrate the fact of being a public media that represents the entire public, and at the expense of the public.
In a satire program in Arabic, they broadcast a skit in which an actor who plays Ben Gabir, the leader of a group of dosim, among them wearing Kahana shirts, leads a "settler" armed with an M-16 behind him and sings "Kahana Hai".
Just like "Wonderland"!
I assume that other skits deal with those who really possess illegal weapons, and even use them as a matter of routine: the Bedouin in the Negev, for example.
Naturally, the religious Zionist party engages "Kan" even when it is not about Ben Gabir.
"Is Smotrich professionally and ideologically qualified to be Minister of Defense?"
wondered the political reporter in the "Kaan" news department, and directed the question to objective and non-political professionals such as Moshe Ya'alon, Giora Eiland and Amos Gilad.
Their answer, surprisingly, was an emphatic no.
They were afraid.
is very.
Not only in matters of religious Zionism,
"Kan" presents an agenda with a sharp political flavor: the political debate surrounding Israel's immigration policy, and the possible cancellation of the grandson clause in the Law of Return, did "Kan" publish the headline "Israel against the Jews of the world?"
Of course, who wouldn't ask themselves this question.
"Kaan" Twitter did not miss an opportunity to mock the photo of Sara Netanyahu with the wives of the coalition leaders with the caption: "We are watching the next season of 'Let's eat with me'".
This tweet, unlike other tweets of the corporation, actually received a good number of likes.
"Is Smotrich qualified to be Minister of Defense?"
asked Kaan's political reporter, directing the question to Moshe Ya'alon and Giora Island
The news department of "Kan" is also necessary for the sake of public fairness.
This is how Geula Evan, the wife of the Minister of Justice Gideon Sa'ar, was awarded an inflated salary and a respectable position in exchange for a rating that dropped to zero.
Every week the corporation publishes data on the most viewed articles, and they are indeed evidence of its necessity in order to maintain a high level: in the last two weeks the most viewed articles in the field of culture were "Shiri Artzi and Petah Klein broke up after 20 years", "A business owner in Ramat Gan claims: The mayor is taking revenge on me With the help of a garbage truck", "Singer Itai Levy in his first acting role on stage".
In the social-political field, you can find "The army is afraid of us: the conscription refusers - the next generation", "Closing the circle: the terrorist who was involved in the downfall of the fighter Noam Raz Khosal", "A visit to the kingdom of Ben Gabir: between Kiryat Arba and Hebron" and also an article about the election results, whose seductive title is "'The common people hate the Arabs': the kibbutz explains the failure in the elections".
In the news editions in Arabic
, the editor ordered to consult him before using the term "terrorists" in coverage of terrorist attacks by Palestinians.
In the edition aired this week, the announcer reported on two cases of stone throwing: in one, "a Palestinian child was hit by stones thrown by Jews."
And immediately after that, in Jerusalem, "a Jewish man was injured by stones thrown at his car."
Who is the thrower?
Not Jews, otherwise they would have indicated their Jewishness in the publication.
"Arabs" - must not be said.
"Stones were thrown" is enough.
And all this is done "here" at an exorbitant price.
For example, a studio program with archive footage such as Guy Zahar's "On the Other Side" costs us five times more than similar programs on commercial channels.
The budgeting of "Kan" programs, despite the cost of production, has nothing to do with the degree of demand for them.
In 2019, the corporation had a record rating for the series "Main Box": 5%.
This is how it is when there is a lot of money and no commitment to justify the investment, apart from nice words about the importance of public broadcasting.
It is indeed important, especially for those who make a living from it.
The corporation's most valuable asset is the Israel Broadcasting Authority's archive, which exclusively documented the history of Israel until the mid-1990s, when the news companies of the commercial channels were established.
As I recall, we paid for these years, and at a high price, but if you want to use clips from the Israel Broadcasting Authority archive - you will be asked to part with NIS 3,000 per minute or part of it.
For comparison, a minute from the Channel 13 archive will cost NIS 750.
After the public broadcasting robbed the public coffers for years and exclusively controlled the electronic communication market, it inflates the prices of a public asset, knowing that it has no competition.
A folk legend tells of David Ben-Gurion (or Chaim Weizmann), who received a noble Arabian horse as a gift from Abdallah, King of Jordan.
Ben-Gurion (or Weizmann) returned the horse to the king and reasoned: "I don't want an edible gift."
The Public Broadcasting Corporation is such a gift.
She also eats, and a lot, she also doesn't win the race, and she also kicks the owner of the stable.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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