Israel's Media Watch
update report # 39

April 7, 2000

Contents:
-  IMW News
-  Words of Wisdom
-  Media News (Israel and Other)
Kol Israel "Inyan Acher" ("Other Matter") radio program by Ms. Dalia Yairi,
is extremely biased against  the opposition, national right-wing.
-"Ma Boer" (What's Burning), broadcast over the Army radio (Galatz) is also biased but not as strongly
- Post-democracy: On the one hand, the media manufacture or distort news.
On the other, certain groups cannot even gain a hearing for their views
Channel 2's Nissim Mishal screened a film clip of four guys in the Safed Cemetery
invoking the Angel of Death to expedite the departure of the pope;
That clip was eagerly seized upon by the world media...
Within two days, the police had arrested researcher Avishai Bar-Haim
on suspicion of having staged the pulsa d'nura ceremony...

IMW News

1.
IMW congratulated Cabinet Secretary Yitzhak Hertzog for his action in
complaining to the Second Radio & Television Authority (SRATA).  Hertzog
berated SRATA for lax compliance of the watershed hour when a TV entertainment
show hosted by Dudu Topaz allowed Italian porno star Cicilione to expose
herself.
Hertzog noted that the media, commercial or otherwise, still are
responsible for a modicum of public morality.  The effect of the media
on children, whether due to unnecessary violence or permisiveness,
can be negative.
IMW suggested that based on our experience, perhaps an outside-the-
establishment effort of supervision could be attempted.

2.
IMW's chairman, Eli Pollak, tabled a query with IBA's chairman asking whether
it is true that the broadcasts of the light plane traffic watch over the
past seven years was done over an illegal band.  If so, Pollak asked, could it be that Kol
Israel radio was engaged in air piracy.
The query was submitted following press reports in the Jerusalem weekly,
Kol Ha'Ir, and the Charedi weekly, HaShavua, that the broadcasts, unexlicably
cut in January, had been interfering with a highly sensitive security bandwidth.

3.
The new date for the presentation of oral arguments of IMW's petition
to indict Eitan Oren, IBA TV reporter for his part in the airing of a staged
film clip, has been set at May 22.
IMW handed in to the three judge panel additional information as requested
including pages of police testimony, the "original" film (we suspect that
the film is incomplete) and a short 7 minute cideo we prepared of out-takes indicating
that the film was tampered with and that the scene filmed by Oren was inauthentic.

4.
A new research report has been published by IMW which indicates that
the Kol Israel "Inyan Acher" ("Other Matter") radio program, anchored
by Ms. Dalia Yairi, is extremely biased against  persons representing the
opposition, national right-wing agenda.  A similar program, "Ma Boer"
(What's Burning), broadcast over the Army radio (Galatz) is also biased
but not as strongly.
      The report, authored by Yisrael Medad and Eli Pollak, reviewed three full
months of programming and identified the political and ideological identity of
those interviewed.  The study covered interviews with politicians as well as
additional personalities such as spokespersons, intellectuals, former MKs,
commentators and other public figures.

The interviewees  were subdivided along the lines of a) coalition/opposition;
b) Knesset  faction;  and c) public personalities.
      Among the findings:
1. Ms. Dalia Ya'iri's program, "Inyan Acher" ("Another Matter"), heavily
favors
the Barak coalition government  (75%). The program also favors left wing
public personalities (77% of this category). Combining the two observations leads
to the conclusion that this program has a severe bias, a problem which must be dealt
with by the supervisory bodies of the Israel Broadcasting Authority.

2.  Mr. Razi Barkai's program, "Ma Boer" ("What's Hot"), also favors the Barak
coalition (65%) but not as strongly as the Inyan Acher program. Left wing
personalities are also favored (65%) but again to a lesser extent than in Ms. Yairi's
program.
      The figures cited with respect to the coalition should be scaled with the fact that the
coalition does represent 57% of the Knesset, so that some bias in favor of
the coalition is to be expected. However, public opinion polls consistently  indicate  an
evenly divided public on many of the major issues, thus when considering public
personalities, outside of the politicians, one should expect equal attention to both sides, which is
not the case.
      As for the claim that the coalition always receives more coverage, as it
 "does" rather than just "talks", IMW notes that both Kol Yisrael and Galatz
 (the Israel Defense Forces radio station) are public-broadcasting instruments that
are obliged by law  to maintain balance and fairness in presenting views and
opinions.

3.  Out of a total combined list of 304 interviews on both programs, only once
was a member of the National Union party allowed to speak to the public.
4.  MKs speaking with Russian-accented Hebrew were discriminated against.
5.  Except for two "media darlings", the report found under-representation of
Arab MKs.
6.  On the "Ma Boer" program, Razi Barkai interviewed Shinui MK (and former
journalist/editor) Tomy Lapidan unexplained (and unfair) 10 times, almost
twice as much as any other interviewee on his program.
All those wishing to receive (as an attachment) the original Hebrew report,
please e-mail your request to isrmedia@netvision.net.il

Words of Wisdom:

1.
"After one strips away from Netanyahu's words [spoken at his TV interview
on March 28], all the shticks and tricks, the half-truths and the false
presentations, one is obliged to admit that there is some truth to his claims.
"The close, two-way connection between the press and the police interrogators,
as was revealed in his investigation, reveals a not very simple problem vis-a-vis the
work of the press and the work of the police.  These two arms should usually be
in an adversial situation...
"There is an element of a witchhunt in the air that has shaped up these
past few months.  Not everyone who is investigated is guilty and not everyone found
innocent was extricated due to negligence by the prosecutor or the mercy of a judge".
-  Nachum Barnea, Yediot Ahronot, March 31, 2000, Political Supplement, p. 3


Media News from Israel:

1.
Several media reporters have expressed their unease that Yair Stern,
director of Channel One TV for the past seven years, has been appointed
by the Communications  Minister as director of the establishment of
Channel Three TV.
Yuval Natan and Rogel Alpher wrote that Stern was an utter failure in
his previous position.  Wags have it that Communications Minister Benjamin
Ben-Eliezer was interested in a "weak" director who would be beholden to him
so as to facilitate extending Labor party influence at Channel Three.

2.
(we have excerpted an op-ed article by Jonathan Rosenblum
printed in the Jerusalem Post, April 7, 2000)

Post-democracy
On the one hand, the media manufacture or distort news. On the other,
certain groups cannot even gain a hearing for their views 
The night before the pope arrived here, Channel 2's Nissim Mishal
screened a film clip of four guys in the Safed Cemetery invoking the Angel
of Death to expedite the departure of the pope, Yasser Arafat, and Hafez
Assad from their earthly toil. The four were identified as haredim
affiliated with Habad.

That clip was eagerly seized upon by the world media...Within two days,
the police had arrested researcher Avishai Bar-Haim on suspicion of having
staged the pulsa d'nura ceremony...

If the staging of the pulsa d'nura ceremony sounds familiar, it should.
It apes the infamous Eyal initiation ceremony broadcast in September 1995.
(Interestingly, both the Eyal and the pulsa d'nura clip were edited by
the same person, Yisrael Segal.)...Eitan Oren, the journalist responsible for
the filming the fake ceremony, continues to be employed by IBA.

Israel's Media Watch filed a criminal complaint against Oren for
broadcasting deceptive material. For 3.5 years, the State Attorney's Office
pushed off the complaint with the excuse that the matter was under
investigation. In fact, the decision not to prosecute Oren was made over
three years ago by State Attorney Edna Arbel. (It was the minutes of the
meeting at which that decision was taken that Attorney-General Elyakim
Rubinstein tried so hard to suppress last November.)

The faked pulsa d'nura ceremony shows that the lessons from the failure
to prosecute Oren were soon internalized by IBA staffers: One runs little
risk in staging "news" events that will discredit the Right or the religious.

The staging of news events that discredit or delegitimize certain segments
of Israeli society is symptomatic of a much broader problem. The free marketplace
of ideas has broken down in Israel, and those calling for its repair are
scarcely to be found, at least not among elite opinion makers. As a consequence, we
are experiencing a poor man's 1984.

On the one hand, the media manufacture or distort news. On the other,
certain groups cannot even gain a hearing for their views. Last week,
for instance, both Ha'aretz and Ma'ariv refused to accept a full-page
advertisement showing a group of Meretz members stomping a haredi
man at a Ramat Aviv protest, with an accompanying text of quotes from
prominent left-wing figures calling for violence against haredim.

For money, Ha'aretz did not hesitate to publish a recent insert by a
Christian missionary group, and Ma'ariv has been only too happy to
serve as the country's pimp in advertising massage parlors and escort
services...

First we had post-Zionism. Now, it seems, our elites would bring us
post-democracy as well.

3.
YES is Not Yet
By Hadar Horesh, Ha'aretz, April 6, 2000

Because of a long hiatus on installing dishes, the YES satellite
broadcasting company will likely request an extension of the
deadline for starting broadcasting, sources in YES told Ha'aretz yesterday.

About two months ago YES had to stop installing dishes on rooftops
after the court asserted that every dish requires a permit from the
local planning and building commission.

At YES's request the Knesset approved the first reading of a
bill amending this requirement, but with the Knesset now on recess
it seems that the second and third readings will not take place until two
months from now.

Under the license given to YES in the beginning of 1999,
the firm must start broadcasting on July 20, 2000 at the latest.
The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council banned cable companies
from offering subscribers tiering services (enabling customers to order
certain channels and not others), during the first nine months of
YES's activity, and mandated the companies to sell YES content during
the first two years. The objective is to help YES collect a critical mass of
at least 150,000 subscribers.

YES claims that the forced delay in installing the satellite dishes makes
it necessary for a change in the timetable, which is based on
July 20 as YES's first day of activity.

However, Dorit Inbar, who chairs the Council, announced she will not delay
YES's deadline.

According to YES, 15,000 dishes have already been installed. Residents
in buildings where dishes have already been mounted did not commit
to subscribe but can be easily connected if they decide to.

Meanwhile, Bezeq's board of directors is convening today to
decide whether to make a larger investment in YES, in which Bezeq
already holds a 30 percent share. The board is being asked to approve
a $12 million investment, Bezeq's share in a total $40 million investment.

Some $170 million has so far been invested in technical preparations
and in purchasing content.

Bezeq, which invested NIS 100 million in the satellite company, is still
not certain about the profitability of the deal. Some of the board
members maintain that the investment was doomed to begin with
and in any case will not yield an immediate profit. But CEO Ilan Biran
and most of the board members support the investment. They say that
if YES provides Internet services hand-in-hand with the TV broadcasts and
goes public on Wall Street, there will be a nearly immediate return on
their investment.

© copyright 2000 Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved

Media News from Abroad:

CNN Responds to FAIR on PSYOPS in the Newsroom

April 5, 2000

On March 27, FAIR released an action alert urging readers to contact CNN and
ask why the network allowed military propaganda specialists from an Army
Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) unit to work in the news division of its
Atlanta headquarters. That action alert can be found on FAIR's website:
( http://www.fair.org/activism/cnn-psyops.html ).

Since then, FAIR has been contacted by Eason Jordan, CNN's president for
international networks and newsgathering, as well as executive vice
president for public relations Sue Binford. On March 29, FAIR received CNN's
official response, written by Binford:

*****
As executive vice president of CNN Public Relations, I am responding
officially on behalf of CNN to FAIR's action alert headlined "Why were
Government Propaganda Experts Working on News at CNN?":

1.      No government or military propaganda expert has ever worked on news
at CNN.

2.      Amongst the hundreds of interns from around the world who spent a
few weeks at a time at CNN in the past year, were five personnel from a U.S.
Army PSYOPS group.

3.      Interns at CNN observe under the supervision of CNN staff and have
no influence over what CNN reports or how CNN reports it.

4.      CNN's intern program is administered by the Company's Human
Resources Department, which is made up of hard-working, well-intentioned
people who are not journalists and who thought they were doing the right
thing when they agreed to a U.S. Army request to allow the military
personnel to intern at CNN.

5.      The intern program was terminated as soon as the leadership of CNN
learned of it. CNN's position: it was inappropriate for PSYOPS personnel to
be at CNN, they are not here now, and they never again will be at CNN.

6.      CNN prides itself on its journalistic independence and impartiality
and is committed to accurate, fair, responsible reporting.

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