WINSTON MID EAST ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY February 11, 2000 gwinston@interaccess.com Please see our web site at http://www.gamla.org.il & http://freeman.io.com JOURNALISM AT A PRICE! by Emanuel A. Winston In the light of the Barak exposי of illegal contributions to his election campaign, it is time to take a hard look at an even greater source of campaign funding. The Israeli media, to include the following newspapers: HA ’ARETZ, YEDIOT AHARONOT, MA’ARIV and Israeli TV news channels may very well exceed all contributions from the 17 false front money raising NPOs (Non Profit Organizations) named by Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg for illegal fund raising. The Israeli media, however, has made no attempt to hide their bias in having its reportage heavily weighted to Labor (now called One Israel) and its candidate, Ehud Barak. While the Israeli media has always been the supporter of the Left, its blatant efforts via tilted reportage in the recent campaign exceeded other years and other elections. It is often said the best place to hide something is out in the open. The biggest contributors to Barak’s campaign war chest have been the media themselves. In terms of real dollars. One page can average $5,000 TO $15,000 if purchased for a campaign ad. If, however, that newspaper commits several pages of commentary, articles, oped pieces, dedicated to supporting one side while denigrating the other, they are no longer observers but participants through cash contributions. If one considers that the paper prints 6 issues each week the value of their hostile articles could be equivalent of from $30,000 to $90,000 per week for one full page ad in one paper. The opposition would need to raise an equivalent amount merely to stay even. Week after week a biased media saturates the minds of the public at large with cost equivalence of millions of dollars. They have become no different from any other donors because their pages do carry a price which the opposition must purchase for cash if they wish to be heard. The concept of Freedom of the Press is not merely abused but is a sly and inadequate excuse for literally joining one side over the other. It does not matter that, on occasion, they print a token news piece in an objective manner. The point is that, when the reporting policies of the newspaper or TV news is consistent in its praise for one side, when undeserved and hostile to the other side when a positive attitude is proscribed, that newspaper, that reporter, that editor, that publisher is a participant by choice. The media of Israel are biased in the extreme toward the Left. They contribute the equivalent value of costly ads covered over news reporting. They are not reporting the news; they are making the news. They have volunteered their costly services to one ideological political party without charge. This is an outright cash contribution, no matter how it is disguised. Those media outlets should be sued for illegal campaign contributions. They should be fined with a penalty called "Equal Time". That those they attack have the right of response with the same column inches and placement in the paper. TV reportage which is shown to be dedicated to one political party over another should have the right to offer its opinion but then free and equal time should be allocated for a response by the opposition. In addition, the suit should include, as a cure, a review board where grievances could be submitted against clearly biased journalists who report their opinions as facts. They should be forced to print a retraction in a prominent part of the paper when the review board concludes they have tainted the truth. |
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