Israel's Media Watch
update report # 40

April 17, 2000

Contents:
-  IMW News
-  Words of Wisdom
-  Media News (Israel and Other)
- American Yated Neeman: How Kol Israel  Favors Reform and Discriminates Against the Religious
- Hizbollah is winning the TV war

We wish all our friends and members a Happy and Kosher Passover!

And we remind you about remitting annual dues.

IMW News

1. IMW has been waging a long-term campaign to achieve balance and
public opinion representation of the "Personal Viewpoint Corner" of the "Media
File" weekly program.  Broadcast over Channel Two TV but produced by the
Educational Television Network (ETN), IMW has observed a very narrow group
of persons who are allotted airtime to espouse their views.
IMW has rejected the explanation of ETN that there is balance and has
suggested that Yoel Rekem, SRATA Ombudsman, himself reveiw the list of the
guests instead of relying on the generalizations and unfounded claims of ETN.

2. IMW's chairman, Eli Pollak, has asked IBA Director Uri Porat who authorized
Motti Kirschenbaum, former IBA director, to provide filmed news items for the
Friday night weekly roundup show "Yoman".
Furthermore, Porat was asked if Kirschenbaum is an IBA employee and if not,
is there a new policy farming out work from the television news department to
freelancers, and if so, who gets jobs.  He was also requested to inform
Pollak how much Kirschenbaum is getting paid per item.

3. After an 8-year old was interviewed on the Channel One TV Mabat news program
last Thursday, April 13, regarding a fight between his divorced parents and
claims by his father that the mother was treating him violently and prevented him
from surfing the Internet, IMW reminded the IBA Ombudsman that Paragraph 84
of the Nakdi Ethics Code prohibits the interviewing of minors without permission of both
parents or guardian.

4. In his quarterly report for 2000, Amos Goren, IBA Ombudsman, noted the
contribution made by IMW in alerting him to issues of balance and professional
ethics and commended us for our work.

5. IMW's special project in cooperation with Media Monitor International
has begun.  IMW is following a standardized coding sytem of television news
broadcasts in line with similar work being done in Germany, Czechoslovakia,
South Africa, England and the United States.

6.
A meeting has been scheduled in the near future with the Cabinet Secretary,
Yitzhak Herzog, to discuss common concerns regarding content and advertsing
standards on Israel television including the issue of social responsibility.  This follows
a public protest Herzog made regarding recent television shows and commercials.
IMW will be suggesting that an independent outside panel be formed to make
recommendations on this matter.

7. IMW's petition to have Eitan Oren, IBA TV reporter, indicted for producing
and broadcasting a staged inauthentic news item about the Eyal organization's
swearing in ceremony in 1995 will be heard on May 22.
In a related development, IMW has vigorously protested to Moshe Nestlebaum,
new chairman of the Tel Aviv Journslists' Assocaition after that group
appointed Eitan Oren to their ethics tribunal.

Media news (Israel)

1.
BALANCE ON ISRAEL TELEVISION
Arutz 7 News, April 12, 2000

The thirteen Arab students who were arrested yesterday during the violent
and illegal demonstration at Hebrew University in Jerusalem were released
shortly afterwards.  They were freed after obligating themselves not to
participate in illegal rallies - although they did not agree not to wave
Palestinian flags at legal ones.  The demonstration began as a protest
against the forced purchase of Arab-owned lands for the Trans-Israel
highway - but later held signs reading, "With blood and fire we will redeem
Palestine."  Israeli-Arabs held yet another illegal demonstration today,
this time at Tel Aviv University. They waved PLO flags, and blocked traffic
for a time.  The police did not intervene.

Israel Television broadcast a segment last night on which an Arab student
leader and MK Ahmed Tibi were guests - with no Jewish guest to present an
alternative point of view.  Arutz-7's Ron Meir noted that the interviewers
asked questions such as, "Why haven't you been demonstrating more?" and "Do
you think that today's events are a symptom of Arab frustration over the
stalled Palestinian track?"  Ya'ir Stern, Director of Israel's Channel One
television station, explained to Meir today that, "in principle, yes, there
is an IBA obligation to provide balance in the viewpoints, but it should be
noted that this balance need not be achieved on the specific program in
question.  It could be that the other side is given a chance to respond
several hours later, or the next day...  It's hard for me to comment on
this particular program, since I didn't see it."

In response to the above, Israel's Media Watch director Yisrael Medad said:
"It's been our observation that the journalistic standards of the
television reporters are less than adequate.  Basics such as obtaining a
response, and making sure that a balanced perspective is presented to the
viewer, are simply not a priority of the IBA TV news department...
Incidentally, Ya'ir Stern is technically correct in his definition of what
constitutes balance, since the Supreme Court has determined that balance
cannot be measured in an immediate sense.  We of course reject this
criteria, and feel that it just serves as an excuse for the news staff.
Even if the other side is presented for a couple of minutes on the 11 PM
news, few people are watching by then..."

2.

How Kol Israel  Favors Reform and Discriminates Against the Religious
American Yated Neeman, April 14, 2000
        
The "Sheshet Yamim" weekly recently reported on how Kol Israel radio station
blatantly favors the Reform movement and discriminates against the
religious. The weekly brought attention to grave discrimination by senior
IBA officials.
         When the Reform movement ran their first broadcast before Rosh
Hashona inviting  Jews to join them in their High Holiday services, Rav
Eichler wanted to run a counter-advertisement. Kol Israel would not permit
his advertisement because there was problem with his use of the concept of
"returning to religion". After lengthy deliberations and delays, the language
consultant decided on the proper term.  Only then, greatly delayed, was
Eichler's advertisement broadcast.
         When the Reform movement wanted to advertise their civil marriages
on Kol Israel radio station two months ago, their advertisements were
immediately accepted. A number of senior Broadcasting Authority employees
expressed their satisfaction that the Reform movement would be reaching a
wider Israeli public, and they did not require the advertisement to pass
the review of the IBA's general attorney Chana Miskovitch. The
advertisements stated that the Reform marriage ceremony was done "k'das
Moshe V'Israel (according to the Law of Moses and Israel)".
         When a spur of angry complaints arrived complaining about the
Reform movement's fraudulent attempt to present themselves as an authentic
Jewish alternative, the IBA at first ignored them. Even after UTJ MK Gafni
brought up the subject in the Knesset, the advertisements continued to run.
         The IBA deputy chairman Gabi Butboul (Shas) approached Amnon Nadav
and applied pressure on him, after which Nadav decided to remove the Reform
advertisements. Although Butboul's victory seemed hollow since the series
of advertisements had anyway finished their run, it was effective for the
future. The movement had been planning a new round of advertisements, this
time leaving the words "k'das Moshe V'Israel" out.
         When a religious anonymous philanthropist  heard that the Reform
advertisements had been accepted, he decided to run an advertising campaign
on the subject of Jewish wedding and Jewish education. He asked Belzer
chosid and former TV talk show personality Rav Israel Eichler to devise
the advertising.
         Rav Eichler tried to get the IBA to agree to the advertising
campaign, but he was continually pushed off for over a month and a half.
The IBA reviewer also refused to accept certain parts of the advertisement
which spoke against the Reform movement. The language consultant for Kol
Israel, Ms. Ruth Almagor, decided that, for instance, they could not use
the phrase "a wedding is not a game." Their agreement to change the
objectionable phrase didn't help. Kol Israel repeatedly brought complaints
and objections to different aspects of the advertising. Each time Eichler
called to find out what's happening with the advertising, they delayed
giving a final answer, and made him run-around between the different
authorities who had to authorize their approval.
         For instance, Amnon Nadav would tell him that as far as he's
concerned, the advertising is OK, but there is a problem with the language
consultant. In fact, though, Nadav was working behind the scenes to
invalidate the religious campaign. Finally, two weeks ago Thursday, the
campaign went on air. It featured a Russian professor called Garick from
the Technion who lives in the north of the country. He said that he is not
religious but he is a Jew, and he wants a Jewish wedding, not a wedding
which is "k'dat Uncle Sam".
         Of interest, when Prof. Garick entered the ulpan to record the
advertisement, he asked Rav Eichler if he had to state that "I am a
chiloni." He explained himself, "I am not a religious Jew, but I wouldn't
call myself a secular Jew either." However, he agreed to say whatever Rav
Eichler would want him to say. Rav Eichler told him to speak from his heart
how he felt. In the end, the professor said in the advertisement, "I am not
religious, but I am a Jew." Garick then said emotionally that he is a
Russian immigrant who came to Israel to live as a Jew, but he is shaken to
see that everything is crumbling before his eyes and he feels there are
those trying to turn the nation into non-Jews.
         The campaign ran on Network Two and Network Three for four days,
but suddenly it was decided to remove it. The objection this time was that
'k'dat Uncle Sam" was an insult against the Reform movement...
         The following segment of the campaign which was about to run
involved Rav Grossman from Migdal Ha'emek reciting aloud "Shema Israel"
and finally "Watch out for illegal imitations." This too Kol Israel found
objectionable, explaining that Reform marriages are legal, they are just
not recognized in Israel...
         Even the little that went on air was done only after Gabi Butboul
applied great pressure. Butboul says that the above scandalous account
shows that Kol Israel has become a branch of the Reform movement. While
they allow the movement to publicize misleading advertisements for many
weeks, the religious community is subjected to incessant censorship and
harassment, and its advertisements are given the run-around.
         "It's impossible that a government authority should act in such a
way!" Butboul said indignantly.
         After further negotiations, Kol Israel demanded several other
changes in the advertisements and finally agreed to allow the
advertisements to include a call to place children in religious schools.
         Religious communal leaders bristling at Kol Israel's presumptuous
way of dealing with religious advertisements now say that if the Reform
movement tries to renew its broadcasts, it will  buy time on Kol Israel to
run Rav Amnon Yitzchak lectures.
         The above religious broadcasts that were intended to offset the
Reform movement's advertisements included 75 runs of the advertisement
featuring the Russian professor, a secular woman advocating a Jewish
wedding, and Rav Grossman. The cost of the broadcasts was 100,000 shekels.
The effect of the advertising was assessed to be substantial -- during the
four days that the advertisements ran, many hundreds of calls came from
people identifying themselves as secular Jews who wanted to know more
information about a Jewish wedding. Many asked why there aren't more
advertisements for Judaism.

3.
Hizbollah is winning the TV war

Four Israeli soldiers walk along a road in southern Lebanon. A bomb is
exploded and the soldiers disappear amid thick smoke. This operation is
captured on videotape by the cameramen of the Shi'ite Muslim guerrilla
group Hizbollah. The footage makes great television - but it also points
a dagger at the heart of the Israeli war effort.

So successful has Hizbollah's campaign been that the Israelis are about
to withdraw from Lebanon. Israeli losses in southern Lebanon are not
enormous - about 25 killed a year - but the fact that Hizbollah
had a fatal effect on public opinion.

Hizbollah's TV station, Al-Manar, has lost two cameramen on active duty
but its head, Nayef Krayyem, insists that others are clamouring to do a
job that is even more dangerous than that of the fighters. Mr Krayyem
explains that the battle-front footage is sent to Al-Manar's studios in
Beirut, where it is edited with some rousing music. As soon as it is
broadcast, the international news agencies ask for a cassette.

Israeli television runs the enemy material, knowing that most Israelis
want to get out as fast as possible. The leading anti-war movement, the
Four Mothers group, believes that the videos have made it impossible for
Israelis to believe their leaders' soothing assurances about the war.

Al-Manar is now hoping to expand around the world. It has just got a
satellite broadcasting licence, and hopes to broadcast news bulletins in
English and Hebrew, aimed at the Israelis.

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=002481139656079&rtmo=lQoulwAt&atmo=lllll
ljx&pg=/et/00/4/12/wleb12.html
- The Daily Telegraph

4. In a previous Update Report, we informed you of the ownership of the three
concessionaires of Channel Two TV.  Ha'Aretz of April 11, carried further
information dealing with the ownership of the three cable TV companies as follows:
Matav - Maariv 15.9%
Arutzei Zahav - Yediot Ahronot 47.5%
(Note: Elezer Fischman owns 17.6% but also owns 25% of Yediot)
Tevel - No other media comapny involved.

Cable TV subscribers number just over 1,000,000.

Media News (abroad)

1.
Woldwide TV viewing reported on rise

Viewers all over the world are watching more TV than ever, while
broadcasters are fuelling their appetite with greater numbers of
programmes centred on money, sex or voyeurism, according to figures
unveiled at Mip TV.

Globally, the average viewer spent 201 minutes per day in front of the
TV set last year, varying from 151 minutes in Asia to a high of 236 in
North America. In the past five years, Europe's TV watching has grown by
nine minutes to 199 minutes a day, while US TV addicts have increased
their consumption by two minutes.

Where global TV culture reigns, money-oriented shows like Celador's
internationally successful format ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' hits
the spot with viewers. There also are more shows on the air that overtly
or covertly concern sex in all its forms.

And despite negative backlash from some audiences, new additions to the
voyeurism genre, typified by ''Big Brother'', continue to emerge. The
report, unveiled at the Mip television market, was published by France's
Mediametrie, whose Eurodata TV surveys 1.2 billion viewers in 59
countries.

Source:
http://news.lycos.com/headlines/Entertainment/article.asp?docid=RTENTERTAINM
ENT-TELEVISION-WORLD&date=20000412
-Lycos / Reuters

2.
TV show takes on Advertisers
April 16, 2000
Making TV by Biting the Hand That Feeds It
By KAREN SCHOEMER

John Forde does not know what made him say it. He had not planned to say it
not consciously, at least. But clearly it had been lurking in his
subconscious for some time.

It popped out of Johen Forde on an episode of "Mental Engineering," his
quirky, low-budget PBS talk show about television commercials and
the social significance of advertising.
The panelists had just viewed a Buick Century
spot in which the car glides silently through a forest while the family
inside gazes rapturously through the windows up at the trees. "Do the rich
have more friends than the rest of us?" the actor Willem Dafoe intoned in a
voiceover. "Are they more deserving of a comfortable seat? Are they more
entitled to brake safely on a rainy day?" Leola Johnson, a communications
professor with graying dreadlocks, remarked upon the spot's mixture of
"class envy and class hatred." Tim Mitchell, a comedian, sputtered: "I
don't think people are going to fall for this ad, that somehow Buick's
against the rich. I mean, how much does the C.E.O. of Buick make? You know?
Yeah, 'Buy the new Buick Commiemobile, the new Buick Proletariat.' "
Mr. Forde, an amiable fellow with a square, jutting chin and a penchant for
wearing sport coats and collarless shirts, looked admiringly at his
panelists. He was enjoying himself. Still, he wanted to push boundaries,
make waves -- geez, he just wanted to know if anyone was watching. So when
the camera turned back to him, he blurted it out. "Why," he said, his voice
rising with indignation, "does G.M. advertising almost universally suck?"

The question hung there in the air. It bounced off the PBS satellite,
beaming into markets like San Francisco, Buffalo, New Orleans -- although,
thankfully, not Detroit. Another panelist, Greg Fideler, a writer, shrugged
and answered, with suitable absurdity, "Because they kill small children."
The corporate oligarchy did not exactly crumble that day, but it did
shiver, however imperceptibly, in the chill wind of voices raised in
protest. "Mental Engineering" may be the only television show ever to take
aim at big business in the vast, gushy spot where it is most vulnerable:
advertising. Each episode dissects and deconstructs four broadcast
commercials, with Mr. Forde (pronounced FOR-dee) egging on his guests with
questions like, "For most Americans, is money the slave or the master?"
and, "Do third world citizens see investors as coming to help?"

Not that the panelists need much encouragement. After viewing a 1999 Super
Bowl commercial for the job-search service Monster.com, in which children
spout lines like, "When I grow up, I want to file all day," and, "I want to
claw my way up to middle management," Lisa Disch, a political scientist,
commented: "When I saw this commercial, I thought, 'Wow! Unions are taking
out ads!' " At a time when the line between mass entertainment and the
advertising that supports it is blurred almost beyond recognition, "Mental
Engineering" could not be more relevant. Interview a few of the show's
participants, and sooner or later a conversation leads to Noam Chomsky.
"There's a real political dimension to the show," Mr. Forde said. "We're
trying to get people to think about themselves as citizens."

The political element, though, is not always explicit. The show's more
obvious goal is to untangle the convoluted social imagery that advertising
projects. Is the lonely-heart woman in the soft drink ad really suggesting
that Diet Coke can take the place of sex? If the life insurance commercial
is actually about a man dying and leaving his children as orphans, why is
the family romping on a beach? "I look for a really strong subtext," Mr.
Forde said. "If the whole point of the segment is to critique the
commercial, then we've missed it. I want to talk about the meaning, the
message it sends to adolescent girls, to elderly people or poor people."
"Mental Engineering" is not afraid to be brainy, even (gasp) academic.

"There's definitely emotion and identity bound up in our purchases," said a
panelist, Chris Vigliaturo, who is a computer programmer. "And the deeper
motivations psychologists talk about -- sex and death -- are very effective
at getting people's attention. So besides keeping corporate organizations
honest, thinking about advertising invites us to unwind our own puritanism."

Karen Schoemer is a pop music critic for Us Weekly.

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