Haaretz Publisher Vows To Boost Marginalized Clickbait Voices

Otherwise, how will genocidal anti-Semites ever get a fair chance to take their case to the public?

Tel Aviv, March 25 – Numerous voices on the left end of Israel’s political spectrum find themselves unable to penetrate into the mainstream, but the man behind Israel’s most prestigious daily intends to change that by taking those with the most outlandish, provocative rhetoric all but guaranteed to attract outrage and attention – and therefore viewership and advertising potential – and placing them front and center.

Amos Schocken, publisher of Haaretz, disclosed today in an interview that he sees immense value in giving voice to marginalized clickbait producers, whose extreme stances on political issues render them unappealing, even repulsive, to the bulk of Israel’s population, and whose placement on the opinion pages of the publication will generate discussion, disparagement, and clicks that he hopes will translate into increased revenue from marketers eager to reach their audiences.

“A vibrant free press is invaluable,” proclaimed Schocken in his office, “but it’s not free. We at Haaretz have always championed the independent discussion of crucial political and cultural questions, and have always conveniently sided with whichever position calls into question the legitimacy of Jewish sovereignty and makes us some money by fomenting journalistic storms. Finding that sweet spot can be a challenge, since only a single-digit percentage of the country’s population agrees with the paper’s stance on any number of central issues, but fortunately, we don’t answer to them: we answer to a network of like-minded NGOs and political figures, mainly in Europe, and that’s whom we’re trying to please. 95% of the Israeli public can go jump into the sea.”

“In case they don’t, many of our writers are on good terms with folks who would love to make that happen,” he added.

Schocken has transformed his family’s publication from Israel’s paper of record into the default venue for incendiary rhetoric against Jews: justifying acts of Arab terrorism, calling the religiously observant benighted Nazis, and paying columnists to paint Israel as an evil that must be expunged in the name of cosmic justice. If Haaretz and its sister web publications in Hebrew and English will not provide a wider audience for such rhetoric, he argues, how will genocidal anti-Semites ever get a fair chance to take their case to the public?

“The answer to bad speech isn’t censorship,” he explained. “Unless it’s speech by a competitor with a better business model and whose sensibilities are more in tune with the actual market. Then we need a law to ban free newspapers. It’s a matter of free expression.”

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