Media Matters: The local press's poetic licentiousness

What The Seventh Eye's 'Post Mortem' and Ynet's 'seven full circles' indicate about the social climate - and sloppy copy.

By RUTHIE BLUM LEIBOWITZ
In this week's edition of the Israel Democracy Institute's Ha'ayin Hashvi'it (The Seventh Eye), editor Uzi Benziman addresses readers in a short piece/letter entitled "Post Mortem." In what sounds like a mission statement, Benziman uses the world of medicine as a metaphor for the media to reiterate the goal of the now on-line-only journal which he has edited for the past 12 years. "Professional discussions... on the quality of treatment administered to particularly ill patients... devoted mainly to treatments which failed, the aim of which is to learn lessons... and reach conclusions necessary for improving the performance of the physicians... The basis for such meetings is honesty, solidarity and a sense of responsibility for the fate of the patient... the principle behind them is solid: to implement a practice of peer judgment, whose goal is to identify weaknesses in professional practices and to rectify them." To add intellectual weight, if not to the noble cause of self-examination, then at least to his penning of it, he makes a literary reference. Well, sort of. "By the way," he writes, "there is a nice American short story (by O. Henry, I think)" [my emphasis] about a group of surgeons who meet regularly in secret to discuss patients who died under their care. At one of these sessions, a doctor gets up and describes his diagnosis of a patient and the treatment he administered. But to no avail; the patient's condition only worsened. According to Benziman's recall of the story - one which this writer was unable to find in The Complete Works of O. Henry - the doctor's colleagues discuss his findings, confirm his diagnosis and are baffled as to why the treatment should have failed. Finally, they ask what the autopsy revealed. Before answering, the doctor appeals to his colleagues to reexamine his findings and to think of any possible alternative illness that might fit the symptoms he described. One colleague does so, and the doctor thanks him, then reveals that his patient is actually still alive. Apologizing for having broken the iron-clad rule of presenting only cases ending in death - he rushes off to the hospital to save his patient. "Journalism is not medicine," Benziman acknowledges, false modesty replacing dubious poetic license. "The severity of the consequences in the event of professional failure is not comparable." Still, he says - and here comes the big "but" - "the past days have served to reiterate to what extent the behavior of the media directly influences the personal condition of many of the globe's residents. The way in which the media are covering the financial crisis (and perhaps fanning its flames) should be concerning journalists and those close to the media everywhere..." It is for this reason, says the veteran Haaretz columnist, that The Seventh Eye has been devoting much of its space to this topic. In conclusion, Benziman redons his white coat and surgical gloves. "...What is required is a comprehensive diagnosis of the role the media (particularly the American media) have played in creating the crisis, and on their contribution, in every country, to the development of the financial bubble that has just burst with such force. In other words, we need findings (and in their wake a discussion) on the contribution, if any, of journalists to the cultivation of worthless stocks and the power of the stock market that leans on illusion. This clarification has to be precise and free of bias and demagoguery - in the spirit of the story about the doctors..." (You know, the story written by don't-bother-me-with-fact-checking-when-I'm-trying-to-make-a-clever-point.) As for the spirit of the story about the doctors: It is not at all clear in this particular metaphor who represents the ailing patient. Is it the global economy? The public? The field of journalism as a whole? Nor is it clear why the media should be to blame - or should be blaming ourselves - for the financial crisis. Indeed, if Israeli journalists are contributing anything to the current crisis - other than uncharacteristic candor about being as confused as the rest of us about how it will affect our own savings and pensions - it has been to purvey a modicum of calm. Accompanying hourly reports on fluctuations in the local and foreign markets, are regular statements by Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer and other experts assuring the public that this economy will not suffer a direct hit - though the hi-tech sector is about to seriously cut back its workforce. What the Hebrew media can and should take "credit" for is the climate of schadenfreude the current crisis has unleashed - simha la'ed that's kept at bay when the TASE and its investors are on a steady high. It is the knee-jerk socialist response to Uncle Sam in particular and capitalism in general that has always been the default stance in this country. It is in such an atmosphere that "free market" - which had moved from dirty-word status to acceptable, even among the ranks of the Labor Party - reverts to its original translation into not-so-ancient Hebrew: an economy in which a lack of government regulation leaves the poor to fend for themselves and the rich to get richer at their expense. Hence, the happiness at the sight of the high-and-mighty's falling, like Humpty-Dumpty. (You know, that character in a nursery rhyme written by someone or other, not O. Henry.) IT IS no wonder, then, that even as serious an economics reporter/ commentator as Channel 1's Oded Shahar, when hosted recently by Keren Neubach on her morning current events program - Seder Yom (agenda) on Israel Radio - replied to a question about the exorbitant pensions received by bank managers by expressing cynical amazement at "how many dishes" a person can eat at a fancy restaurant. Now, no citizen here is content with what seem to be unfair fees for bank transactions. Nor do the salaries of the upper echelons of the banks make sense to us, to put it mildly. An intelligent debate on this and every other aspect of consumerism in this country is not only warranted but welcome. But is it really of any interest what our bank managers spend, or even waste, their millions on? What - pray tell us, pundits, whose positions on such issues the public awaits with bated breath - does this have to do with the price of tea in China? The answer lies in the term "social gap." In other words, it is not how the poor are faring that is at the root of the preoccupation with what the rich are up to, but rather the comparative wealth between the two. And it is a preoccupation that is not reserved for the financial or op-ed pages. Nor is it aimed exclusively at those outside of our profession. In this week's entertainment section of Ynet, in a spread called "Hakafa Mele'a" (coming full circle - a play on words with the hakafot done on Simhat Torah), Eran Bar-On, Or Barnea, Dror Amir and Amit Kotler compile a list of seven stars who have done just that. Among them is TV host Erez Tal, whose own career path is titled: "A full circle that paid off." And here is how it is described: "The full circle that Erez Tal made should be taught at Israeli communications schools. After years on the screen of Channel 2, from the days of The World Tonight to Only in Israel, one fine day, the bomb was dropped: Tal was moving to Channel 10. For a long period, he received a highly respectable salary from the new commercial channel, more than $1 million, according to rumors. But after a long period, and, according to him, a frustrating one, during which none of his programs was put on the air, he returned to Channel 2." Ynet praises Tal for realizing where his "true place" is. The implication here is that Tal sold his journalistic soul to the devil, but has now come to his senses. Its writers would do well to come to theirs. Too bad they weren't paying attention in their own communications schools, where they might have learned that reporting on rumors, particularly without even mentioning who spread them, is a lot more unethical than making an upward career move. They also might have spent a little more time (say, five minutes) to find out how long, exactly, was the "long period" of Tal's employment at Channel 10. IF UZI Benziman and his ilk really want to make a wise investment in the marketplace of ideas, they should first acknowledge that if envy were a measurable commodity, its stock would be soaring today, even on Wall Street. ruthie@jpost.com