Israel's
Electronic broadcasting:
Reporting or Managing the News ?
7.
Imbalance in the Israel Broadcasting Authoritys Programs
Yisrael
Medad & Prof. Eli Pollak
Israels
Media Watch
"The Israel Broadcasting Authoritys obligations as a quasi-governmental institution include: objectivity, prevention of the politicization of the Authority, fairness, equality, no conflict of interests, and integrity in its decisions". Aaron Barak, President of Israels Supreme Court, Speech, May 13, 1996.
1.
Introduction - 2. Israels Broadcast Media - An
Overview
3. The
Ideological Identity and Credibility of Israels Media
4. The Media Treatment of the Oslo
Process
5. Rabins Assassination and the
following Week as Reflected in Channel Ones TV Broadcasts
6. The Israeli Broadcast Media During
the 1996 Election Campaign
7. Imbalance in the Israel Broadcasting Authoritys
Programs
8. Conclusion
9. References - Selected Bibliography of
Works Consulted - Notes
7.
Imbalance in the Israel Broadcasting Authoritys Programs
The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), through its radio and
television
transmissions, constitutes a public media network. As such,
the
expectation of media consumers that balanced coverage between the
rival
political groupings in a country where the interest in the
activities of
the Prime Minister, his government and the Knesset is very high,
itself
becomes part and parcel of public debate.
During 1997, due to several media affairs, the subject of media
interference and its perceived lack of balance came to the
fore. One such
incident occurred in September when President Ezer Weizmann
slapped Channel
Twos Moshe Nussbaum, an incident that was hushed up and
went unreported
for weeks even though it had been filmed (62). Neither of
the two
television channels thought the action of the President
newsworthy.
It later was revealed that at least on two other occasions,
Weizmann had
used , what was described as "over-friendly physical
force", on two other
journalists, one a woman. It wasnt until Shelly
Yechimovitz, who had read
the HaAretz item, interviewed Nussbaum on her radio
interview program that
the issue was discussed. Nussbaum appeared on Channel
Twos afternoon talk
show, "At Five with Rafi Reshef", and that was the
extent of electronic
media interest.
Weizmann, a darling of the media for his pro-Oslo stand while
being
critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu, merited a protective wall
of media
indifference. On the other hand, Netanyahus remark in
September 1997,
uttered to a Rabbi, that "the Left has forgotten what is
means to be
Jewish", was given extreme coverage, several times daily for
a full week.
To compound the unbalance and the consequent favoritism, that
same week,
his Labor Party rival, Ehud Barak, was quoted as referring to his
possible
left-wing Meretz partners as having less than full Jewish
roots. His
remark was glossed over and received little media attention.
In early October 1997, following publication of the attempted
assassination of Hamas official Khaled Mashal in Jordan,
Carmela Menasheh,
Kol Yisraels military affairs reporter, was accused of
combining her
personal views with her factual news reports. On October 9,
IBA D-G
Kirschenbaum released a statement that said: "the public is
not stupid and
knows to distinguish between a news item and commentary on the
news. In a
matter such as the affair in Jordan, all the press dealt with
both news and
opinion while reporters brought both news and opinion
together. To the
best of my knowledge, Carmela did not express her own personal
opinion..."
(63).
It was less than appropriate, and that an understatement, that
the IBA
head, who also serves as its chief editor, seek to excuse an
incident of
blatant unethical behavior while noting, at one and the same
time, that
"everyone is doing it" and that "she didnt
do it".
That the IBA D-G was unable, publicly, to differentiate between
what is
practiced and what should be practiced, and what is correct for
the public
broadcasting network while belittling the ethics code of
the IBA, should
be extremely disappointing and painful for the public. It
seems that there
is no real serious attention paid to the matter of broadcasting
ethics.
The IBAs professional executive were not willing to
recognize the problem.
Moreover, there seems to exist a major difficulty of exerting
control over
what is happening in the IBA. The result is unbalanced
broadcasting which,
of necessity, is biased broadcasting.
(Note: references in parentheses in the following section refer
to the
Nakdi Document)
A.
Balance - What is It and For What Purpose?
According to the Nakdi Document, "balance"
is defined as permitting fair
and impartial expression of different opinions in correct
proportions, both
in news and opinion broadcasts without awarding points (para. 41;
45). A
central element of balance is "the ability to bring the news
in the most
objective and neutral manner (para. 26) as well as the
prohibition "to
broadcast feelings instead of information", that is,
"the report must be
factual and as complete as possible" (para. 27). These
regulations, and
others, all stem from the fourth paragraph of the Law of the
Israel
Broadcasting Authority which stipulates that "in the
broadcasts, a place
should be given for the proper expression of the views and
different
opinions currently held by the public" and the
third paragraph which
obligates the IBA to broadcast information on "the current
affairs of the
state, its struggle, its creativity and its achievements".
The editors of the last edition (64) of the Nakdi Document write
in their
introduction that "we should always review what is the
measure of the
journalists ability to present before the media consumer
the full, exact
and significant picture and what is the measure of
purposeful concealing,
of bias in every one of the stages in the process of transferring
data from
the news department employee, who is the provider and agent, to
the viewer
and listener - the media consumer".
Imbalance is created when there is no supervision or control over
the
various ethical fields:
expressing ones personal opinion, lack of response, using a
value-loaded
term, attaching titles, not broadcasting information, lack of
variety, not
identifying the commentators background, preventing
pluralism and the
squelching of criticism. Balance is intended not only
because of the
demands of the professional code but to avoid the entrenchment of
tendentiousness, especially in a public broadcasting system that
is
involved in "public broadcasting". Such an
authority must be particularly
careful, due to its legal and public responsibility.
In an interview conducted by Razi Barkai with Benjamin Netanyahu
on the
formers "Media File" television program on
February 21, 1998, the Prime
Minister made clear what must be the responsible position that
the IBA
should adopt as well as any public broadcasting network:
"R. Barkai: Is the IBA, in your
opinion, balanced?
B. Netanyahu: "The problem is not in the political views of
the editors
or the broadcasters, even if in this instance there should be
a certain balance. The problem is in assuring the
professional
ethic. There are private views of a person and there is his
ability to give expression to the variety of existing
views. This
is the main thing".
What follows are examples of the most frequent forms of
imbalance.
B.
Expressing Personal Opinion
IBA employees are obligated to distinguish between their opinions
and the
facts (para. 26 quoted above and para. 27: "the broadcaster
must avoid
expressions of solidarity with matters he covers").
Even in an interview,
there exists a similar prohibition (para. 77b). Despite
this, many
broadcasters, interviewers and show hosts occasionally allow
themselves to
add expressions or statements that reflect their personal
opinion. Such an
expression can influence the media consumer as regards the
subject at hand
and, as such, is an act of bias. While, separately, these
instances may be
thought minor, it is their cumulative, "drip" effect
that presents a problem.
Kol Yisraels military affairs reporter, Ms. Carmela
Menasheh, often
crosses the line between news and views. The IBAs
ombudsman was forced to
bring to the attention of the radios director several
justified complaints
against Ms. Menasheh. In addition to the example above (the
Mashal
affair), Menasheh, on April 14, 1997, reported on the Prime
Ministers plan
to spend the Seder night at an army base. In her report,
she asked "why
must the PM disturb hundreds of soldiers?" who, in her
opinion, would be
affected by Netanyahus decision. On September 14,
1997, in a report on
Lebanon, she added "a solution must be found".
Mr. Aryeh Golan, too, too frequently expresses his own private
opinions
within the framework of his hosting of the daily morning news
wrap up
program on radio. The IBA ombudsman, Mr. Viktor Grayevsky,
wrote IMW on
October 7, 1997, that "your complaint was passed on to radio
director Amnon
Nadav, with my request that he reprimand him due to his
expressions. I
hope that he will pay special attention to the matter". (65)
C.
Non-Broadcasting of Information
It is the journalists obligation to provide the media
consumer with as
full a factual report as possible. Even if there is no
absolute
objectivity in the selection of news items (para. 59), the
journalist's
competency is judged by his ability to gather data and to expose
it
(Introduction, p. 10). The reporter is to be a "fair
agent" in the
transferal of news (op. cit., p. 11). As the Nakdi Document
makes clear
there, when news items are not broadcast, one is free to mull
over the
possibility that the result is coincidental or one that stems
from bias.
The slap across the face that Moshe Nussbaum received from
President
Weizmann (as described above) is a classic example of a news item
hidden
from the public by the media. A similar situation arose
over the Gabi
Butbol affair. A member of the IBAs plenum, he was
quite active in
criticizing the IBAs professional executive. As a
result of a directive
issued by Mordechai Kirschenbaum, IBAs Director-General,
the "Popolitika"
program producer sent a researcher to check up on Butbols
performance as
an administrator. Realizing what was developing, Butbol
complained to the
IBAs Chairperson, Rina Shapira. The affair eventually
reaching the
courts, after over a year of deliberations, investigations and
public
debate. Not one item of this affair was broadcast over
IBAs radio and
television news programs until the very last stage.
The "Mabat" evening news program never informed the
public that the PAs
police force had invaded the White Russian Orthodox monastery in
Hebron,
throwing out its residents and their belongings and beating up
two nuns in
August 1997, an interesting and relevant story of a religious
conflict.
That same week, however, several nights were devoted to
highlighting the
parallel story of a young woman, Tatiana Susskin, pasting up
caricatures of
Mohammed as a pig in Hebron causing religious conflict.
As was pointed out in a previous chapter on the media during the
1996
election campaign, Shimon Peres achieved media preference
and sympathy
apparently stemming from a dovetailing of interests and values
between
Peres policies and those of some outstanding media
personnel. Interviewed
by Daniel Ben-Simon for a book on the elections, Peress
remarks on the
quality of those who voted against him appeared on the very first
page.
Those who lent their support to his opponent were "all those
who do not
possess an Israeli mentality". In response to the
follow-up question, who
are these people, Peres, in a clear racist tone, declared
"its possible to
call them the Jews". (66)
The book was widely reviewed and yet no media personality thought
to
question Shimon Peres as to the implications of his
remarks. Even
following a speech in the Knesset by Prime Minister Netanyahu
attacking
Peres over the content of what he said, the broadcast media
ignored the
issue, preferring it to die a death of neglect. If one
considers the
outpouring of media interest dedicated to Netanyahus
statement to Rabbi
Kadouri, mentioned above, or more recently, that devoted to MK
Ori Orrs
racist comments on Moroccans in an August 1998 interview with the
same
Daniel Ben-Simon, the dearth of media attention is a stark stain
on the
conscious of media personnel.
D.
Non-Identification of a Commentator
The code of ethics is quite clear about political commentators:
"when
there exists a link between a commentators political belief
and the
subject under discussion, there is an obligation to note the
political
background" (para. 23). This principle is quite
obvious in the need for
full disclosure to enable the media consumer to judge for himself
the worth
of the commentary. Nevertheless, the IBA has failed and
continues to do
so, especially in regards to two frequent commentators: Amnon
Avramovicz
and Professor Asa Kasher.
The simple and plain fact that Kasher was a candidate for
elections to the
14th Knesset on the Meretz list, the radical liberal political
grouping
headed by Yossi Sarid and Shulamit Aloni, was never mentioned in
any of
Kashers appearances on television and radio over the past
two years.
Kasher, who authored the controversial Code of Ethics for the
Israel
Defense Forces, was, for example, the studio commentator for over
two hours
on the live broadcast program of the state ceremony commemorating
the first
anniversary of Yitzhak Rabins death.
Mr. Avramovicz first appeared on the "Yoman" Friday
night news review
program as a commentator and now is an editor of the program,
siting in the
studio. He also appeared as a regular commentator for the
daily "Mabat"
news program on issues of security and undercover intelligence
affairs. He
expressed chagrin at handing over a present to the
right-wing when he
identified Avishai Raviv as a General Security Services agent
whos code
name was "Champagne". In a newspaper interview
(67), he revealed that he
was a Labor Party supporter for years and that in publishing an
item about
a planned assassination attempt on a PLO chief, he intended to
harm the
Likuds reelection chances back in 1981. This data,
which would seemingly
compromise his objectivity, and at the very least, oblige the IBA
heads to
balance him with an opposite number, made no impression at all.
Avramoviczs standing has only increased over the years and
he was allowed
to get away with a blatant biased performance when he questioned
then-Foreign Minister David Levy about Netanyahu, asking him:
"do you trust
the Prime Ministers psychological stability?".
(68) The question was not
only lacking in good taste but patently exceeded the professional
expertise
of both Avramovicz as well as David Levy.
E.
Imbalance in the Inviting of Guests and Commentators
An imbalance in the inviting of guests, either in their number or
in the
framework of their appearance, will cause the phenomenon of
stacking the
deck. For example, the regular panel
journalists on the "Popolitika"
program is all but absolutely identified as open supporters of
the Oslo
process and as leftist in general foreign affairs and security
matters.
This was true both before and after the 1996 elections. In
addition, they
do not appear as questioners or interviewers but make personal
opinion
statements. A detailed survey of this is contained in
IMWs special
report mentioned above. IMW has documented other examples
as in the week
following Rabins assassination, also previously
noted. Several additional
examples follow.
A year and seven weeks after the murder of Yitzhak Rabin,
"Popolitika"
devoted its October 27, 1997 program to the issue. The
panelists included
Daliah Filosof-Rabin, his daughter, Professor Anita Shapira, head
of the
Rabin Heritage Center, Dr. Menachem Klein and Dr. Gutwein, both
supporters
of left-wing politics. All of them spoke out against the
nationalist camp
whose sole representative, one out of five, was Yisrael
Harel. On
September 17, 1997, MK Benny Begin appeared on the
"Conference Call" TV
program opposite three members of the "Four Mothers"
movement demanding an
immediate and unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon. Not only
was their
imbalance in the number of guests and the time devoted discussion
of the
viewpoints but Begin was consistently interrupted and hardly
completed a
sentence. In addition, no other intermediate opinion was
discussed.
F. Unreliable
Information
The fourth paragraph of the IBA Law obliges the authority to
broadcast
"reliable information". The Nakdi Document makes
it clear that an
insufficient check of sources or a cross-checking of sources will
cause the
reporter, out of neglect or personal preference, to broadcast
unreliable
information.
One such example is a story first reported in the summer of 1995
on the
"Yoman" program that the lack of adequate water
supplies to the Hebron
Hills region was due to the overuse of water by the Jewish
residents of the
area. The Kiryat Arba swimming pool was shown juxtaposed to
an empty
faucet in an Arab house. Despite protests, no follow-up
story was
broadcast. Two years later, the Civil Administration of the
territories
confirmed that 40% of the water destined for Hebron was stolen,
drained off
on the way, by Arab farmers. The story reappeared in the
summer of 1998,
again without due reference to the reality of the situation.
In another instance, Yaron Dekel, political affairs correspondent
for Kol
Yisrael, quoted a fictitious quotation in a May 9, 1997 broadcast
a report
concerning a Labor Party gathering that day. He claimed
that Ziad
Abu-Ziad, PA legislator, was a supporter of the Beilin-Abu-Mazen
agreement
and so spoke at the gathering. Abu-Ziad called in to
correct the
attribution, which was done several hours later, commenting that
Dekel had
not been present. Suspicion fell on Yossi Beilin as the
source. Dekel,
who failed to confirm his story, was perceived, along with his
editor, to
have provided Beilin with political back up at the expense of
journalistic
ethics.
The use of unclear terms, purposefully beclouding issues, is
another cause
of unreliability. For example, the use of "security
elements". The public
is unaware whether such "persons" are truly a soldier
under uniform who
desires to hide his identity or a political figure with a
military
background who is hiding his political inclinations. An
example of such a
usage is the report by Carmela Menasheh in the morning news
review on Kol
Yisrael on April 3, 1997. There she quoted
"assessments" of "security
elements" and "army elements". Among the
"assessments" was the firm belief
that "only the action undertaken by the Palestinian security
factors can
prevent planned terrorist attacks", as if the IDF and the
GSS were
irrelevant. Without a clear identity of the source, the
media consumer
could have been receiving political propaganda disguised as
actual army
intelligence.
G.
Political Inclination
Ronnie Milo, mayor of Tel Aviv, is probably an outstanding
example of this
problem. Until declaring his candidacy for the prime
ministership in late
spring 1998, Milo had been a regular panel guest on a political
affairs
program, "Game of Shabbat", broadcast twice on
Saturdays, in the morning
and repeated in the evenings. He was present in over 85% of
the programs
transmitted.
In a period of personal elections for mayorships as well as newly
introduced primary elections, the political weight that can be
garnered
through unique television or radio appearances is great.
There was no
justification for the granting of such a unique platform for any
politician. The preference granted Milo, despite many
complaints, damaged
his potential political rivals.
Television awards a media allure to active politicians by
applying to them
the title "commentators" as if they were neutral
observers, academicians or
experts instead of being intensely involved with a personal
stake in the
subject they are discussing. For example, MK Amnon
Rubinstein of the
Meretz Party, although a Professor of Law at the Tel Aviv
University, is a
full-time politician. Despite this, he often appears as a
commentator on
legal issues. General (Res.) Oren Shachor, who joined the
Labor Party and
serves as a close advisor to its head, Ehud Barak, frequently
appears as a
commentator on issues concerning the negotiations with the
Palestinian
Authority.
In connection with the problem of political bias, one cannot
ignore the
media event of 1997: the "Bar-On - Hebron" Affair.
(69) Many saw this
affair as a media coordinated effort to act outside the
democratic process
against a prime minister elected in direct elections. The
criticism
against the character of the reporting and the way the coverage
was
broadcast, especially by Channel One TV was
quite bitter during the three months the affair was in the
news. The
criticism originated from many quarters. IMW complained and
released
statements regarding ethical and professional errors
in the reporting and
coverage. The damaging inside media story, though, was that
of Aviv
Bushinsky, Radio Kol Yisraels police reporter.
Aviv Bushinsky published an article (70) in response to remarks
made in
reference to his professional work ethic by Rafi Halabi, head of
IBA
televisions news division as well as Mordechai
Kirschenbaum, the IBA
Director-General at the time. Bushinsky reiterated his
remarks on a Kol
Yisrael radio interview program hosted by Nadav HaEtzni and
broadcast on
September 14, 1997. On the face of the charges made by
Bushinsky in
relation to the television coverage of the "Bar-On"
Affair, a serious
investigation should have been initiated into the machinations of
the
television news department. This was never done although
Kirschenbaum
attempted to launch an investigation against Bushinsky but was
halted by
the IBAs public supervisory body and its chairperson, Prof.
Rina Shapira.
Bushinksys reports did not always coincide with the version
of the affair
that was being promoted by the television. Echoes of the
differences of
opinion leaked to the press. Bushinsky accused Channel One
TV of unethical
behavior, especially on the part of Halabi and Chason.
Bushinsky also
hinted at criminal suspicions. Bushinsky quoted from taped
recorded
conversations he conducted with Halabi, in which Halabi spoke in
a
threatening and caustic manner, attempting to influence the way
Bushinsky
was reporting. Halabi, as evidenced from the taped
conversation, viewed
his journalistic duty as managing a battle over whether criminal
charges
would be made against Netanyahu and others. He accused
Bushinsky of acting
out of self-interest and pressured Bushinsky, reminding him that
he
(Halabi) had spoken to Kirschenbaum, the head of the radio and
the head of
the radio news division.
Bushinsky claimed that the television news division did not draw
conclusions from the initial hurried manner in which the first
broadcast
was made, lacking, as it did, a reaction from Bar-On. He
wrote that they
labored for some time to substantiate and verify the original
story, all
the while putting on a "show" as if they that version
was authentic, that
the coverage of the police investigation was coordinated with the
police
investigators themselves while Chason awarded marks to this and
that
investigator in her televised reports and praising others.
He also accused
Channel One television of ignoring the fact that the suspected
source for
Chasons story, advocate Dan Avi-Yitzhak, was interrogated
by the police
and that Chasons reports, in part, represented interference
with the
police investigation when, in an attempt to gain his reaction,
she informed
Bar-On that the police were on their way to his office. The
fact that an
internal police investigation was conducted against the police
investigation teams second in command was suppressed by
Chason. And
lastly, Bushinsky pointed out that reports carried by Channel Two
and the
Maariv newspaper regarding Avi-Yitzhaks behavior were
ignored by Channel
One.
On the basis of this article, IMW requested of IBA Chairperson
Shapira
that a special review be conducted. Such an act by the
public supervisory
body would have contributed to a clearing the air for if only a
portion of
Bushinskys charges proved true, the conclusions would have
been
far-reaching and quite serious. Except for
Kirschenbaums announcement
that he intended to review all of Bushinskys reports, which
he later
recanted, no internal IBA review was ever made of the handling of
the
Bar-On Affair.
H.
Broadcasting Songs with Political Content
Songs with a strong left-wing message, whether in their general
content or
specific phrases, are frequently heard over the public radio
network. For
example, Aviv Gefen sings of "lets get out of the
territories and conquer
the peace". Shalom Chanochs song,
"Dont Call Me A People", is
accompanied by a video clip which makes clear the dominance of
its
one-sided political message.
Songs with an opposing ideological message, such as "Hebron,
Now and
Forever", are not heard in any regular entertainment
program. Left-wing
songs are also played as background during news programs, thus
doubling
their impact.
During the 36-hour national mourning period following the double
helicopter crash in 1997, not one song that could be defined as
being
Chassidic or Traditional Jewish was heard. The refraining
from
broadcasting cultural expressions deeply rooted in the religious
Jewish
heritage during general events and thus preventing the general
public from
hearing them, as well as the limited broadcasting of
Mediterranean-style
music in such situations, amounts to an imbalance in cultural
diversity.
I.
Prevention of Criticism
Ram Evron, former moderator of the defunct media program,
"No Mans Land",
in an interview published in the HaAretz newspaper (71),
admitted that he
intentionally prevented criticism of the IBA from being broadcast
on the
program. This discriminatory situation is well known to
IMW. Despite
repeated requests to appear on the two main morning radio
programs, not
once has an IMW representative been invited to voice his opinion
on a media
issue. During the three seasons that "No Mans
Land" was shown, an IMW
representative appeared but once.
As noted previously, on the eve of the 1996 elections, one of the
signatories on the "Open Letter to the Media",
Professor Gavriel Moked, was
invited to appear on three different programs, all of which were
canceled.
In an unpublished letter, Moked described "something strange
happened to me
on the way to the media":
"All these incidents only strengthened me in my
opinion that our media is
contaminated not only with forceful arrogance...[and] ideological
uniformity...
but, in addition, the majority of those in the media who set the
tone are
trying
to the domination a super extreme radicalism, one which is closer
to the
the "new historians" who aspire to undermine the
Israeli narrative rather
than
a balanced line of support for the peace process". (72)
IMW is a registered non-profit organization whose major aim is assuring the ethical and fair conduct of the Israeli media.
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