Israel Broadcasting Authority Editor Admits: We Slanted the News to push
withdrawal from Lebanon
by Hillel Fendel Arutz Sheva, June 5, 2007
www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/122665

(IsraelNN.com) A former Israel Broadcasting Authority news editor admits:
"We slanted the news towards a withdrawal from Lebanon - because we had sons
there."

Speaking at the Haifa Radio Conference on Monday, several former and current
news broadcasters on Voice of Israel and Army Radio discussed the tremendous
influence they nearly all agreed they had on Israel's national agenda.

Dr. Chanan Naveh, who edited the Israel Broadcasting Authority radio's news
desk in late 1990's and early 2000's, was particularly bombastic about his
pervasive reach: "The morning audience, stuck in traffic jams or at work, is
simply captive - they're ours." He also mentioned, with no regrets, two
examples in which he and his colleagues made a concerted effort to change
public opinion:

"Three broadcasters - Carmela Menashe, Shelly Yechimovich [now a Labor party
Knesset Member - ed.], and I - pushed in every way possible the withdrawal
from Lebanon towards 2000. In our newsroom, three of the editors had sons in
Lebanon, and we took it upon ourselves as a mission - possibly not stated -
to get the IDF out of Lebanon... I have no doubt that we promoted an agenda
of withdrawal that was a matter of public dispute."

At this point, Army Radio broadcaster Golan Yochpaz interrupted, "In my
opinion, that is just super-problematic - super-problematic." Naveh did not
miss a beat and said, "Correct, I'm admitting it, I'm not apologizing, I'm
just saying this is what happened. It came from our guts because of the boys
in Lebanon, this is what we did and I'm not sorry... I am very proud that we
had a part in getting of our sons out of Lebanon."

It is widely accepted that the withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000 under
then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak and the lack of attention paid to the
northern border since then led to the Second Lebanon War of last summer and
its accompanying 160 military and civilian casualties.

Naveh's boast came towards the end of the panel discussion and was not
widely addressed. However, just seconds later, retired Supreme Court Justice
Dalia Dorner, the president of the Israel Press Council, summed up and said
that the journalists must show courage and not allow outside influences to
affect their ability to influence public opinion:

"You determine the daily agenda and you have the power; the problem is that
in your profession, it can't be dealt with properly and ethically without
civil courage... You have the power, so use it also to ensure that there is
freedom of speech - of course, with the limitation that you must act
ethically and not create hostile public opinion, because there is nothing
that affects freedom of speech more than hostile public opinion."

Moderator Dalia Ya'iri, a former anchor of the widely-heard Israel Radio
afternoon newsmagazine, opened the panel by saying, "Thank you for the
applause; we and the radio truly deserve it; it is good that it is realized
that in essence, without us, there is nothing! Even the television takes
from us..."

Popular Army Radio broadcaster Razi Barkai said, "There is no doubt that the
morning shows and what they broadcast determine the agenda of the rest of
the day."

Only Golan Yochpaz, who anchored an Army Radio morning newsmagazine for
several years, said, "We must not overestimate our influence... We have an
influence, but it often lasts only until the next news show. And often,
don't forget, the politicians use us; we fall victim to their spins... It is
also not true that we come in with a specific agenda to push. We - at least
I - come in with the goal of making a good show."

A phone message left for Chanan Naveh, hoping to clarify his remarks at the
conference, was not immediately answered. Similarly, MK Yechimovich's aide
said that she would not be able to address this matter today.

Israeli journalists have previously admitted that the media was largely
enlisted on behalf of the Disengagement/expulsion from Gush Katif and
northern Shomron. "I have failed. We have failed," wrote Kaveh Shafran,
political affairs correspondent for Israel Army Radio shortly before the
expulsion was carried out. "As a diplomatic correspondent, I was among those
who in the past year were supposed to tell the public exactly what is the
Disengagement Plan, why it was created, how it will be implemented... The
media's conspiracy of silence protected Sharon when he fired cabinet
ministers who did not support disengagement..."

Similarly, respected Israeli journalist Nachum Barnea admitted that most of
the Israeli media acted more like the "guard dog" of the Disengagement Plan
rather than that of democracy. Writing in the monthly media publication "The
Seventh Eye," Barnea stated that Israeli journalists made a mistake that
must be acknowledged, and that there is "no argument that the tone in the
Israeli media is pro-disengagement."