Keren Neubach is a talented, bright, hard-working and professional media
personality. Though politically she is inclined to the Left, no one ever doubted
her intellectual honesty, or claimed only rightwing politicians are targeted in
her criticism.
However, it is the Right that is in power today, and it
was the Right that was in power in 2004 as well, when Neubach was removed from
her position as political reporter on Channel 1 by then-director-general of the
Israel Broadcasting Authority, Yosef Bar’el. The main criticism against
Neubach then, as it is today, was that she has a “strange” inclination to be
critical of the government, something that the right-wing government apparently
cannot stomach.
Neubach’s career in public broadcasting was not
terminated in 2004, and she was allowed to continue to broadcast as a presenter,
both on TV and the radio – a not totally unwelcome development as far as she was
concerned.
However, in November 2011, Neubach was once again removed –
this time as presenter for Channel 1 TV’s investigative Mabat Sheni (“Second
Glance”) program. The (lame) excuse given? She is not photogenic (in Hebrew the
term used was: lo overet masach – does not go over well on screen), though it
was clear that her photogenic qualities were not the issue.
Now Neubach
is under fire again; the current director of Kol Yisrael, Michael Miro, has
decided to add “a balancing presenter” to her popular daily radio program Seder
Yom (“Agenda”) on Reshet Bet of Kol Yisrael. Seder Yom deals with current
social and economic issues.
Though I usually tune in to the classical
music station while driving, I frequently switch to Reshet Bet when the
reception of the music station is disturbed, and so I occasionally find myself
listening to Neubach’s program. While I have invariably found the program
interesting, I must admit I have reservations regarding Neubach’s inclination –
which is very typical of Israeli TV and radio presenters – to interrupt those
she is interviewing if she happens to disagree with what they are
saying.
In fact, I resent this phenomenon to such an extent that last
Friday night, when the presenter of Ulpan Shishi, Danny Kushmaro, kept
interrupting Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, who was trying to defend the new
economic decrees, I actually felt sympathy for the beleaguered Steinitz, who
continued bravely to struggle to defend his policies, and to end his
sentences.
Having said all this, nothing justifies Miro’s actions.
Firstly, adding a “balancing presenter” to a successful program, the success of
which is largely due to its existing presenter, is simply not professional.
Short of removing the program you feel is not balanced politically (or which
irritates your bosses), you can either have alternate presenters on the same
program, or you can create a separate program that will deal with the same
issues from another point of view.
In fact, if it were not for the fact
that Miro is apparently intent on infuriating Neubach to the point that she will
decide to resign, he could learn a lesson or two from the Knesset Channel
(Channel 99), where there are presenters from all sections of the political
spectrum, each of whom presents issues on the agenda from a different political
vantage point. The result is quite incredible, turning the viewing of the
Knesset Channel, whose budget is fully covered by the Knesset itself, into a
fascinating experience.
The second problem with what Miro did is his
choice of “balancing presenter.” Apparently Miro did not have a large number of
right-wing presenters to choose from. In fact, several of the candidates
expressed their disapproval of the move on ethical grounds. But the final
choice – the highly controversial publicist, poet and literary critic Menachem
Ben – was no less than scandalous. Ben likes to play the role of
provocateur.
For example, he openly stated on Big Brother VIP, in which
he participated in 2009, that he seeks to outlaw homosexuality, denies that Aids
exists as a disease, and rejects the theory of evolution (all this is recorded
in video clips online). In short, Ben does not miss an opportunity to make
provocative statements that are anything but politically correct.
Haaretz
publicist Benny Zipper has termed Ben a sort of clownish idiot-savant, who as
such has an important role to play in society, in that he is able to uncover
various manifestations of human hypocrisy, and reach non-conformist conclusions,
without his fearing the consequences, even though one must add that this has led
on several occasions to his being fired from various positions that he
held.
But what on earth does Miro expect Ben to contribute to Keren
Neubach’s program (which Ben admits he never even heard before making his debut
on it a week ago Sunday) except turn it into a freak show, and drive Neubach up
the wall?
At the time of this writing, it is not clear how this whole episode
will end. Neubach has reacted with a partial strike, and her supporters have
been demonstrating outside the Kol Yisrael studios, but whether Michael Miro
will go the whole way and fire her, or reverse his decision, only time will
tell. However, in so far as he is Binyamin Netanyahu’s man, and has supposedly
coordinated his moves with him, one cannot help wondering what the prime
minister’s plans are for the public Broadcasting Authority.
The writer
teaches at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College and was a Knesset employee for
many years. She is a senior strategic adviser to President Shimon Peres.