Chief of Staff slams media
Yaalon accuses Israeli media of inventing facts, ignoring journalistic ethics; says wide gap between media, public perception of army
Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon lashed out at Israel's media Wednesday, saying Israeli reporters are superficial, ignorant and manipulative.
Speaking at the annual convention of the Israel Communications Association at Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Yaalon related a story of a recent encounter with a group of journalists.
"Not long ago I had a discussion with eight reporters. The next day, the headlines in the paper were completely false, written by a commentator who wasn't even there, who attributed a comment to me that we had "won" the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
"Worse, none of the journalists who took part in the discussion criticized the headline, in order to protect their colleague," said Yaalon.
Yaalon said the Israeli media "is characterized by a failure to stick to the facts, and operates out of foreign considerations and ignores journalistic ethics.
He also said that despite the media, recent polls show wide gaps between public and media perceptions of the IDF.
Communications association: very sorry
Avi Weinberg, head of the Communications Association, told Ynetnews he was "personally very sorry to hear the chief of staff's attack, and I think he is very wrong.
"We are not perfect, and we can make mistakes, but Israel's media usually does it's work faithfully. I think that overall, Israel has excellent and responsible media."
