Hartzi, your success is our success!
Kochavi and Levi (Photo: Reuven Castro)
On April 19, 2018, Eberhard Zorn was appointed to the position of Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, thus becoming the German Chief of Staff. The Minister of Defense of Germany (yes, the last three who held the German security portfolio were women) accompanied him in a military ceremony in which he received the rank of general and was allowed to pass An impressive military order. The ceremony was covered on the news in Germany and life went on as usual. Last night, in Israel, almost five hours of commercial television broadcasts were devoted to covering the replacement of the Chief of the General Staff of Israel. 284 minutes to be exact. I counted with a stopwatch.
The official ceremony of awarding At around 10 o'clock in the morning, no fewer than four different television channels in Israel broadcast the ranks for the rank and file of Rabbi Allof Hertzi Halevi. Here 11, Keshet 12, Network 13 and now 14. If you wanted a bit of escapism from the militaristic reality of Israel, the only options were the shopping channel or the Knesset channel , where the entertainment program "Constitutional Committee Law and Law" was broadcast at the same time with the beloved host Simcha Rothman.
With your permission, I will talk specifically about Keshet 12, simply because it is a channel that calls itself "Israel's television", so it is interesting to see how this motto works in reality.
Well, the channel's broadcasts started at 06:00, with the morning show hosted by Niv Raskin.
The panelists in the studio started making small talk about the weather, but a minute into the broadcast, Barak Seri announced: "It's a holiday today! Let's say congratulations to the new Chief of Staff!" Raskin of course agreed with him and added: "Today will be a special broadcast."
Well, say "ma'am!"
Gallant awards Hertzi Halevi the rank of rabbi (Photo: Government Press Office, Kobi Gideon)
Indeed, Keshet's self-marketing machine started working like clockwork a minute into the channel's broadcasts, and has not stopped.
By the end of the program, there were no less than 12 more references to that "special transmitter", some in the morning flashbacks of Adi Zarifi and some as Raskin's interviews with the military reporter Nir Debori and with Major General Giora Island.
Wait, we just started.
At 9:30 "The Broadcaster" began, hosted by Yaron Avraham, while the ceremony itself was conducted by Nir Davori and Yair Sharki.
The last time there was a ceremony in Israel that required three moderators, it ended with Madonna faking "like a prayer" with a strange patch over her eye.
This time we only got Yoav Galant in a not bad imitation of Eran Zahrovich.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who sat in front of the screen and waited for it to say "ma'am".
The "special" transmitter lasted for an hour and a half.
Excessive by any standard, and still reasonable given the circumstances.
It seems that in a country that sanctifies the IDF as the true religion of Israeliness, ignoring this heavenly ceremony will be interpreted as blasphemy. At a time when the Minister of Communications promises that he is going to cut the budget of one TV channel and the Minister of Culture wants to hold censorship committees - no channel wants to be the one to cut a state ceremony from broadcasting , even if its natural place is in a live broadcast on the IDF's TikTok.
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This is how the TVs looked at Walla's news desk yesterday (photo: Amit Salonim)
At the end of the ceremony, Keshet Broadcasting took the opportunity to present the great content that made them "Israel's television" - rebroadcasts of cooking shows and "Masked Singer".
At two o'clock the program "Three" started (no, that's not a mistake), in order to break into another "special transmitter", this time even longer.
105 minutes hosted by Ofer Haddad, with special guests in the studio such as former IDF spokesman Avi Benyahu and Eli Aharon, who was Hertzi Halevi's teacher in elementary school. No, my dear, I'm not making this up. Maybe the moment they get to interview an elementary school teacher of a 55-year-old man is the moment when a news outlet has to ask itself if it's not time to move on to the next item? Is there really nothing more important going on in the country right now?
It is about a few strange hours that occur every few years when there are two chief generals serving in the IDF, until the farewell ceremony for the outgoing Chief of Staff.
That's it, this sentence is all that can be said about this period of time, yet News 12 decided to stretch its coverage non-stop with interviews, commentaries and a lot of ridiculous military pathos.
The interpretations repeated themselves in a never-ending loop, for example it was said in several ways that Hatzi Halevi was not Netanyahu's preferred candidate, but Eyal Zamir.
Even Zamir himself has already forgotten that he was a candidate for the position at this stage, but when there is nothing to say in the studio against the background of a ceremony where nothing really happens - there is no choice but to grind water.
Really, isn't there anything else going on in the country that you need to talk to Hertzi Halevi's teacher? (Photo: screenshot, News 12)
At four o'clock the program "First Edition" began, which those who are not familiar with the broadcast schedule of "Israel Television" should know that it is the news program that is broadcast between the news program "Three" and the news program "Five with Rafi Rashef" (after which three more news programs will be broadcast in succession, and the arm more italicized).
The program opened with today's shocking news, the recording of the first sign of life from Avra Magnisto, after 8 and a half years in Hamas captivity.
More precisely, the program opened with a rebuke from host Netali Shem Tov, who accused Hamas of a cynical attempt to take over the Israeli agenda.
Oh no, one can only hope that the abominable murderers of Hamas were not offended by being called "cynics" on Channel 12!
Then, in a wonderful moment of unawareness, just after the reprimand, Shem Tov took the program to a long commercial break - even before showing Magnisto's recording.
You will be surprised to find out that this was not the most humiliating moment in the show.
Yalo Magnisto, Avra's brother, came on the air, trying to figure out together with the live viewers if the desperate man in the video is his kidnapped brother.
It was a heartbreaking interview.
A man who hasn't seen his brother for so many years suddenly has to recognize his family member, and he's not sure he's capable.
At this point, News 12 decided to take us back to the lowest moment in the history of Channel 2, and opened a split screen. On the right, Magnisto is speaking. On the left, a separate military order from Aviv Kochavi - including the sound of the orchestra.
The return of the split screen.
The lowest moment of News 12 from the day of the Chief of Staff's change (photo: screenshot, News 12)
Within seconds they managed to wave Magnesto back into the depths of Israeli repression, and we got the festive ceremony in Kriya on the big screen with another quarter of an hour that we won't get back into our lives.
Did you think it would end with the end of the ceremony?
Think again.
Even after the ceremony was over, we continued to see guerrilla footage of Kochavi's march to the exit of the base, where soldiers were waiting for him and applauding him.
To this personal moment of a man who is released from the army after 40 years, the camera of News 12 was accompanied as if it were a paparazzi of Britney Spears making herself another bald head live.
Uri Izak managed to stick a microphone in front of Kochavi and ask enthusiastically: "What is the goal of the big trip? What is the goal of the big trip?".
Kochvi responded with a smile: "We will assess the situation."
This question and answer will be broadcast many more times later this evening.
The exchanges in the channel will continue.
At five, Rafi Rashef will come, along with his colleague Amit Segal and reserve Major Israel Ziv.
The latter will also analyze the choice of the new Chief of Staff Hertzi Halevi to quote from Shaoli's Civil War skit (in the case a character of Keshet). At six Oded Ben Ami will arrive to continue dealing with the replacement of "soldier number 1" together with Amos Yadlin, including photos from Halevi's visit At the Western Wall, in a sort of summit meeting of the holy symbol of Judaism and the ultimate symbol of Israeliness.
Precisely in the main edition with Kushmaro, the story of the replacement of the Chief of Staff received its rightful place, as the fourth item in a program full of news and events.
After hours in which a state story received disproportionate coverage, it's nice to see that there are still editors in Neve Ilan.
After the news we got another program of "The Masked Singer", the silly Korean entertainment that conquered the most influential media in Israel.
Then an edition of Guy Pines, Live in the Night was broadcast and for dessert a rebroadcast of Rafi Rashef interviewing Rivka Zohar.
A replacement for the IDF's Tiktok. Nir Debori (Photo: screenshot, News 12)
In fact, for a whole day Bekeshet - "Israel's TV", as I recall - broadcast a lot of current affairs broadcasters, several rebroadcasts and one new episode of one TV show, and it's not an original format either.
284 minutes were devoted to the replacement of the army commander (I include in the calculation a minute in which Moshe Detz spoke about the issue in the program "Hai Bille") - and zero minutes for original content.
It is Keshet's right to do that.
This is commercial television, and on these channels there is nothing easier and cheaper than broadcasting news.
The fact that this thing has an audience shouldn't come as a surprise, mainly because that's what we've been used to.
In fact, if you switched to channel 13 you would see more or less the same thing.
On the other hand, it is important to pay attention to this balance of power between current affairs and original content on the commercial channels precisely at a time when the Minister of Communications wants to cut the budget of the Broadcasting Corporation, the body that invests the most in original and high-quality television work.
Without it, we'd be stuck with a few more hours of news and reruns of cooking shows.
Krei, have mercy.
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News 12
Rainbow
Avi Nir
Hertzi Halevi
Aviv Kochavi