On video: The government approved the state budget for 2024 15.01.2024/Video (upload): Omer Miron / L.A.M., Sound: Ben Peretz / L.A.M.
"Ladies and gentlemen, everyone is in a panic! They're celebrating! The credit rating went down! Moody's downgraded! What a panic on the left! Oh, oh, oh! Celebrations! We're handing out a lot! Guys, everything's fine, everything's under control, we'll continue until the absolute victory. It won't help To you! And Bibi will be prime minister at the time of absolute victory! What will you do?! Oh oh oh."
This is how last night Yanon Magal opened "The Patriots", the flagship program of Channel 14. Word for word.
This stupid opening monologue he wore wearing a blue hat with the slogan "Absolute Victory" on it, the local version of the infamous American MAGA hat.
The Hebrew slogan is worse, and it's no surprise that Magel volunteers to make himself its poster boy.
Magel is a TV star, but even stars need text that makes sense to get across a screen.
Shouting that the left is panicking about the drop in the credit rating and then ten seconds later saying that the left is celebrating the drop in the credit rating is not a matter for script editors, but for doctors.
The use of the concept of "distributing in kalava" is not accidental either.
The parallel is clear: the leftists, on Magal's channel, are actually supporters of terrorism, like the Palestinians who celebrate in the streets after attacks against Jews.
The leftists are celebrating that Israel is being hurt - security-wise, politically and now also economically.
The main thing is that together we will win, yes?
Does it matter that there wasn't even one leftist who "celebrated" the credit downgrade?
of course not.
But what does it matter to Linon Magal?
Since when does the truth affect anything on Channel 14?
And in general, they decided to hide the historic low that Israel's economy reached at the end of the week from the viewers of the channel.
Only 45 minutes after the opening of the main edition with Maggie Tabibi, in the middle of an interview with the Minister of Transportation Miri Regev, the story was revealed for the first time to the viewers - quite a few of them Shabbat observant who were not exposed to the story during Shabbat.
This is bad news for every Israeli citizen - whether he watches the news on Channel 12, News 14 or Netflix.
At the very least, the current affairs consumer deserves to understand what this headline means.
What is the A1 vs. A2 rating anyway and how is it going to affect the pocket of each of us?
Channel 14 refused to clarify the meanings to their viewers, not because they don't have the phone numbers of right-wing economists who can come to the studio and explain the situation, but because there is no spin that can get Netanyahu out of this story.
And that, on Channel 14, is the only thing that matters.
Since when does the truth matter to him?
Yanon Magal, "The Patriots"/screenshot, Channel 14
In the program "The Patriots", after whining about the way the families of the abductees treat the Channel 14 campaign against them, they remembered to come and talk about the first time in history that the credit rating of the State of Israel was lowered.
To Yanon Magal's credit, who read selected passages from the Moody's report, he opened the discussion with a kind of admission that he did not understand what he read at all.
Even if Magal's words were said sarcastically, it was still impressive to hear him speak the truth.
Magal repeated the phrase "I didn't understand" three times after reading to the panel the gist of the report (or at least the gist of the report that was important for Channel 14 to convey to viewers).
"I didn't understand! I didn't understand! Is this an economic report or a political report or a political report or a military report?"
He put his question to the panel, which responded with silence for a change.
Itamar Fleishman finally broke the silence and responded seriously: "What was the question? I didn't understand."
To Fleishman's credit, he did not agree with Yanon Magal's claim that this was a political event, and explained that it was an economic event with political elements.
From here, quite as expected, the panel continued to adhere to the message page of Prime Minister Netanyahu (who responded to the matter quite rarely during Shabbat), according to which the downgrade of the credit rating is strictly related to the fighting, and as soon as the war ends, the rating will rise again.
Fleishman explained that "our survival comes before the economy.
Committing suicide is not an option." Eldad Yaniv explained that "there is no decent economist who thought that the rating would not go down" and added contemptuously that economic journalists "celebrated today with foam on the lips... celebrating on the rooftops, Fadiha." Yotam Zamri opened his words by saying that he did not understand Talk about economics and don't even know the meaning of the word fiscal. Well, if you don't understand something, it's better not to talk about it. On the other hand, since when did that bother anyone on Channel 14? Zamri continued with a long monologue about a subject he admits he doesn't understand, and not surprisingly, His words were embarrassing.
More in Walla!
"I don't want to live in the same country as Yanon Magal and the Kahnites. I hate them. They are a Jewish Hamas"
To the full article
I don't understand and yet I speak.
Yotam Zamri, "The Patriots"/screenshot, Channel 14
It is hard to believe that Shinon Magal, a journalist for decades, does not understand the meaning of the downgrading of the credit rating.
It is hard to believe that no one in the studio knows that Israel has gone through severe upheavals in the past, but did not suffer such damage to Israel's credit rating.
In the Second Lebanon War, on a solid cliff, in Corona - Israel incurred heavy economic expenses, but Israel's internal strength proved to the rating companies that Israel's economic future is still stable.
It is hard to believe the audacity of trying to turn arrows of criticism towards the supporters of the protest - the same ones who for months warned that the government's actions would lead to a fatal damage to the economy, which indeed came.
The war is hurting the economy in the present, but Moody's looks to the future, and sees the promiscuous conduct of the Netanyahu government, and understands that as long as economic decisions are determined by political whims, Israel has no way to save itself from its own government.
It is enough to look only at the continued distribution of coalition funds and the leaving of unnecessary government offices open to perceive the government's complete loss of direction in the local economy.
Channel 14 believes in many things, but taking responsibility is not in their lexicon.
More on the same topic:
the patriots
Yanon Magel
Channel 14
TV review
Gaza war
Moody's