Yonit Levi wins an award for ‘objective reporting’. It must be April 1
I was surprised and a little shocked to read that TV news anchor Yonit Levi has been given an award by Ben Gurion University for “Objective Middle East Reporting.” In fact, she is one of the most biased Israeli journalists, rarely hiding her political opinions. Levi is famous for her sighs, facial expressions and general body language that follow every news item, letting viewers know what she is thinking, and what they too should be thinking.
When she interviews persons she agrees with, she allows them to talk at length, rarely challenging anything they say, no matter how outrageous. But if it’s someone she doesn’t agree with, she doesn’t let them finish a sentence, interrupting them in the middle and causing them to change the subject. She often interrupts her own interruption, rendering the interview entirely unintelligible.
Two of my most enjoyable moments of TV viewing involved Levi. The first was when she interviewed Barak Obama several years ago when he was still President. It was not so much of an interview as a chance for her to ask him easy, “puffball” questions, and let him answer in mini-speeches for as long as he wanted. Levi sat there looking at Obama with big, adoring eyes, which were as embarrassing for him as they were for her.
The second time was at the end of US election day in November 2016. Levy was covering the election for her Israeli TV channel and left no doubt of her support for Hilary Clinton. When all of the major media groups called the election for Donald Trump, the camera turned back to Levi. Her entire face was in her chin. I have never seen anything like that before or since. I knew of the expression, “one’s face has fallen,” but I never knew what it meant until that moment.
In point of fact, Levi is not alone. She is symptomatic of the major networks. Many of the Israeli TV news personalities have long since given up on objective journalism and have become publicists for one cause or another.
Israel Channel 14 positions itself as a right-wing alternative to the other networks. It is unapologetically partisan. The problem with the other channels is that they claim to be objective, but are as biased for their causes no less than Channel 14.
Their most popular cause, of course, is freeing the Gaza hostages NOW! Family members are kept in the limelight on most news and feature programs. The interviews with them are merely opportunities for them to sound out about the daily suffering of the captives and their abandonment by the government.
Listening to the family members, you would not be mistaken to believe that the hostages are being held by the Israeli government and not by a murderous terrorist group.
Never are the family members asked what should be done by Israel to get Hamas to release the hostages. Should there be any ‘red lines’ in giving in to the terrorists’ demands? What should these red lines be? If Hamas absolutely refuses to even negotiate freeing the hostages, what should the government do?
The interviewers know that asking these questions would be very embarrassing for the family members. After all, it’s so much easier to blame the government than to offer real solutions that are not total surrender to terror.