Left-wing media? Really?
If anything, the media is slanted to the right side of Israeli politics
Shelly Yechimovitz's decision to enter the political arena has renewed the frequently-heard claims that the "left" controls the media.
Several writers have cited Yechimovitz's defection to Amir Peretz and the Labor Party as proof positive that the media tolerates opinionated journalists, but only if their opinions lean to the left-wing side of the political map.
This is a mistake, created by ignoring several influential media outlets, and by mistaken definitions of "right - " and "left –wing."
Just what media do these claims refer to? To the three major national daily newspapers, government radio, and the three main television stations. These bodies do, indeed, address many people, but there are other media outlets as well, whose audience is no smaller than the above mentioned outlets.
Russian, Orthodox right-wing
Take the Russian-language press, for example, which reaches half-a-million readers with insufficient Hebrew proficiency to read the Hebrew press. Almost the entire Russian media is "right-wing," and Russian readers are subjected to a steady stream of one-sided messages.
Or how about the ultra-Orthodox press, directed at some 10 percent of the population that does not watch TV or read the large national dailies.
This community requires many journalists that deal specifically with its issues, is influenced by the weekly newsletters that flood synagogues around Israel each week by the tens-of-thousands, and listens to exclusively religious radio stations and listen to rabbinic sermons that denigrate non-Orthodox Jews.
And let's not forget the religious Zionist media, who need the general media but enjoy a wealth of quality journalists who refuse to consider heretical ideas and almost all of whom are strongly identified with right-wing politics.
All this would suggest that the audience addressed by the right-wing press is at equal, and perhaps larger, than that of the general press. It is also likely that the influence of these media outlets is greater than the influence of the general media.
Defining right, left
And anyway, what do "left" and "right" really mean, anyway? Most often these terms refer to persons beliefs about permanent borders. This definition bears no resemblance to a person's thoughts about social policy
People think "right-wing" means social conservatism, ethno-centrism, a preference for the national interest over the personal ones, belief in both the national narrative and national myths, answering to national instincts, and usually includes religious belief.
On the other hand, "left-wingers" are supposed to be accepting of changing values, to challenge existing narratives, critical assessment of reality, cosmopolitanism, a preference for personal over national rights, and secularism.
According to these definitions, Israel's daily newspapers, in particular Yedioth Ahronoth and Ma'ariv are mildly right-wing. Their agendas are ethnocentrically Jewish, Israeli Arabs make few appearances, Palestinians appear only as terrorists and the "world" exists only insofar as it affects "us."
"Zionism," whatever that means, is a holy value to these newspapers, and the Jewish religion is the only philosophy that receives any coverage at all.
Sensationalist headlines address emotions, and economic reporting leans clearly in favor of market economics.
Other influences
The media is only one influential body in our society, and not necessarily the most important one. The school system is more important.
About a third of Israeli schoolchildren study in Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox schools in which there is no exposure at all to left-wing or secular ideologies.
The "left" requires special standing in the race for the hearts of Israeli students. It couldn't possibly "infect" the "right-wing", even if the general media was completely "left-wing."
