The meeting of Fernando Merman and Louis Har, who were rescued from Gaza, are reunited with their family members / IDF spokesman
Fernando Marman and Luis Tal in the air force helicopter.
An exciting segment that only highlighted the problem of the news broadcasters in covering the event/IDF spokesman
Imagine the broadcast of a football game where the result is known in advance.
Although it's not a live game, it's still interesting: how the exiles were conquered, what the coaches said after the game - and other perfections that sports fans like to consume.
Now take this broadcast and remove the replays of the goals - and we are left with only the hugs at the end of the game and the coaches' explanations.
Not uninteresting, but already more on the level of a report on the Super Bowl from last night, which mostly amounts to a close-up on Taylor Swift in the stands.
This is what happened last night to the news broadcasts on television: in the morning they excitedly reported the result, which is much needed by the Israelis who have not experienced elation for several months.
With all due respect to the initiators, planners and performers of the operation - and there is a lot for everyone, it was clear that part of the joy at its success also reflected our desire to hold on to a little bit of good news, because in the test of the result (and God forbid I sound like I am underestimating the importance of the event), two hostages out of 136 were saved.
This and more : Even through the most optimistic prism, the number of hostages who were killed by IDF fire is still higher than the number of those who were rescued alive. Even if we happily accept the defense minister's promise that "there will be more operations", let's assume that there will be ten more of these, in each of which two hostages will be rescued without Hurts to our forces (Amen). After all, even then about 114 hostages will be given up by Hamas. As long as we keep the proportions.
The ruins in Rafah after the release of the two hostages.
Proof that even a great news story not supported by adequate video is quickly pushed off the top of the news/Reuters
where is the video
But it was not this joy-stopping logic that was behind the relatively short time that the dramatic news held the headlines, but rather its lack of visuals.
In the morning, one would have thought that we would be rewarded with a highly produced document, like the one that documented (for example) the successful assassination about three weeks ago in the hospital in Jenin and looks as if it was taken from the next season of "Fauda", but even in the afternoon news editions there has not yet been one.
What did they do in the news in the meantime?
They filled in the blanks with interviews with relatives, documented again the house from which the abduction took place, tried to assess whether and how the successful rescue would affect the continuation of the fighting or, alternatively, the negotiations - and they all waited for the documentation that the IDF spokesman might release.
By eight o'clock in the evening it was clear that systems The news (and as a result, the viewers at home) will lack detailed documentation of the event. What there is is documentation from a UAV plus a video clip, exciting in itself, from the helicopter.
In News 12, for example, the edition watched by one of two news viewers in Israel (the second half is divided almost equally between three channels), was edited quite well with appropriate graphics, which shows that they had the material long before it was allowed to be published, to fill in the gaps.
did it work
Well, only partially: very quickly the main article that started the news, that of Nir Debori with the videos and graphics, gave way to a color article about family reunification.
That's how it is - when you don't have what you need, you work with what you have.
And we will move on to the other topics
Sorry for the particular detachment that is required to coldly analyze the plight of the studios, but a television newscast can only hold the tension of a broadcast on the condition that it is an unfolding and developing event, for example - the shocking attack of October 7th, an event in which at every moment a horror movie unfolded before our eyes, also If large parts of it were missing the visual dimension.
When both the outcome is known in advance and the reconstruction is not supported by enough video clips of reasonable quality (and not just black and white footage using night vision), it is impossible to keep the item at the top of the news for more than a few minutes, before moving on to talk about the economy and the demolition of houses for the purpose of rebuilding them in Kibbutz Bari.
So it happened that one of the most dramatic news reports that provided us with more than four months of fighting, was reduced to much smaller dimensions: who knows?
Perhaps these are the proper proportions, even for an event that turns out to be a mirror image of that terrible Sabbath (accurate intelligence meeting excellent operational capability).
On the other hand - they have already held open studios here for long hours for much less.
Marciano Foundation.
She chose to interview Merav Tal who was kidnapped, while Ayala Hasson summoned Iris Haim to the studio.
Notable differences of approach to the subject of the abductees/screenshot, News 12
Two approaches to the abductees
This does not mean that there were not some interesting anecdotes during the news coverage of the event, which in the absence of appropriate visuals were quickly detailed for discussions: the Sheva Arab slot, the one staffed at Besket 12 by Keren Marciano and here at 11 by Ila Hasson, reflected a dramatic difference in approach to the matter of the abductees.
Hasson chose to invite Iris Haim to the studio, whose abducted son was accidentally shot to death by IDF soldiers. Haim has long been revealed to be larger than life thanks to the comfort she offered to the shooting soldiers. Her summons to the studio, even if it is not explicitly said so, is intended to support the thesis of the preference for military pressure over the abductees agreement. Merav Tal, Peduit Shavi, was interviewed by the Marciano Foundation. She promoted the opposite agenda according to which the release of the abductees in the agreement is above all else. Both positions are legitimate, of course, but the differences in approach have never been so pronounced.
Even before that, they brought a request 12 the ability to use their talents as internal fuel for the record. While Oded Ben Ami closes the episode of the operation to free the kidnapped in "Six People", what was playing in the background was not (let's say) "How good you came home" but a song by Keren Pels together with Shiri Maimon and Shir Ya'akov (whose family was abducted to Gaza).
My feeling is that despite the use of talents and the appropriation of the national narrative for a channel that claims to express the mood of an entire nation, they regretted a little that Chaim Cohen and Ruthie Brodu do not excel in singing, it would have promoted much better the "Winning Kitchen" that was broadcast after The news, instead of the "next star" whose season has already ended, which means that there is more to aspire to.
Ayala Hasson: "People in the cult are not convinced by the facts."
Priceless/screenshot, 21
That's how it is in a sect
Back here 11, the channel where Hason is, unwittingly, also provided the evening's comic relief.
In the discussion that developed in her studio, Prof. Uzi Rabbi brought up the possibility that Yahya Sinvar is "cognitively stuck" - and Hassan embraces the definition with admiration: "It's just like a cult!"
She announces - and immediately explains: "People in sects are not convinced by the facts."
Those who were quiet, surely heard the irony screaming outside the studio.
You may not believe it, but this was only the introduction to a discussion conducted by retired Sub-Gondar, Betty Lahat, which dealt with the question of whether the Sinwar brothers were soti min (I promise you I am not making this up).
What can be said about such a discussion, a few minutes before prime time?
Maybe it's just that if someone is considering switching to Channel 14, then Hasson's program is a perfect preparation course.
More on the same topic:
abducted
Ayla Hasson
Marciano Foundation
News 12
Here is 11
Gaza war
War of Iron Swords