Idan Eretz Shows Us Behind-the-Scenes Fake Media in Action

In a Tweet, Idan Eretz showed us how fake media works. Well, sometimes, at least. I am sure this is not the only time this has happened. Translation below the Tweet:

כרגע גוף תקשורת מסוים פנה אלי וביקש ממני לדבר נגד החרדים בעקבות משבר הקורונה, כולל קריאה לפטר את ליצמן. הסברתי שבעיני ליצמן התרשל בהנגשת המידע לציבור החרדי, אבל אין לי שום רצון לתקוף את החרדים כקבוצה.

אמרו לי שפחות מתאים ושאלו אם אני מכיר מישהו ב”ישראל חופשית”.

— Idan Eretz (@Idaneretz) April 6, 2020

In English:

A certain media firm just approached me with a request that I talk against the Haredim following the Corona crisis, including a call to fire Litzman. I explained that, in my opinion, Litzman failed to make information available to the Haredi public but there is no reason to attack Haredim as a group.

I was told that that is less appropriate and was asked if I know someone in “Be Free Israel“.

When asked, Eretz told followers that the ‘certain media’ firm was Galatz (IDF radio station) and the invitation extended by a freelancer at the station. In a later update, he told followers that the journalist called him back and he added this Tweet:

which says:

The writer who spoke to me earlier and tried to bring me in for an interview in which I would talk against the Haredim in the context of the Corona called in order to explain that she was wrong and that she is just a Galatz freelancer, and the article was intended for an American media outlet. I deleted the original post and now post this one. It is a communications disgrace, but apparently there is no direct link specifically  to Galatz.

Okay, so now Galatz is off the hook, specifically, for this one. But we must wonder if this points to a modus operandi. It does seem to support those who claim that the media is slanted, deliberately producing ‘fake news’ that promotes certain politically correct views.

Once I was called upon by a criminal lawyer asking if I would agree to assess his client and then provide expert testimony in court. I said, “Sure. And you should know that I will tell the truth of what I find regardless of whether or not it is favourable to your client.” Of course that was the last I heard from him. At least he did not ask me for a name of someone who was perhaps willing to be a ‘bit more flexible with the truth’ than I was. But no more nor less transparent than the journalist who invited Idan Eretz to a media interview. At least we can say that the client is paying the legal fees. Who is paying for the fake press?

The relationship between the press and politics is an old one, probably from the early days of town criers who moved from place to place and shouted out the news that the leadership wanted the general (uneducated) population to know.

Now we have, on the one hand, a prime minister who is being sued for allegedly trying to persuade certain media chiefs to tilt the news away from a slant that is unfavourable to him to one that puts him into a better light (Cases 2000 and 4000). The court will decide whether or not this is true and if true, if it is criminal. And then, ironically, one of Bibi’s most virulent critics has sued the journalist Eli Zipori for 100,000 NIS.

Zipori’s crime? His Facebook post says:

Yair Lapid sued me today for 100,000 NIS following a number of posts I wrote about him over the past two weeks that dealt with Blue&White’s cooperation with the Joint List in the formation of a minority government. Lapid argues …  that ‘over a long period of time the defendant has acted systematically to try to hurt MK Lapid’s good name’ … the defendant tends to publish posts that are false and defamatory against MK Lapid…’

Yes. I found one thing particularly defamatory (this is sarcasm) – Zipori made a play on Lapid’s name, changing one letter that made it spell out ‘Arrogant’ (יהיר) rather than Yair (יאיר – that means ‘to illuminate’).

As in the cases against Bibi, we will have to wait to learn how the courts will weigh in on this one. It is interesting to see how one politician is being criminally sued for trying to manipulate the press (among other things) and another, who wants to see the first behind bars, has laid a civil suit against a journalist who calls him names when reporting on his activities as an elected so-called public servant.

If one politician (allegedly) offers the press favours for favourable press and the other sues for unfavourable press, it is no wonder we mere peons do not trust the press.

In 2017, I wrote about how a live interview with a government minister on morning radio was either, later in the day, whittled down to delete the essence or just ignored because its content did not fit the news site agenda. Now, Idan Eretz comes along and puts another nail in the coffin by showing us how media interview airtime can be manipulated a priori in order to present us only with information someone somewhere wants us to have so that we are led to believe what they want us to believe.

Will others share with us additional schemes used to inundate us with fake news? Perhaps if we know enough about how we are being manipulated, we can start to clean up the media or, better yet, order the media to clean up its act on its own. Perhaps.