Mainstream Press Gearing Up To Be Oppositional Again If Bibi Elected

“It’s important for us to remain objective.”

Jerusalem, July 11 – Israeli journalists and pundits began to practice their “speaking truth to power” attitude this week and last, after letting the skill set lapse over the last year, now that a serious prospect exists that Binyamin Netanyahu will regain the premiership in election later this year.

Broadcast, print, and online news media and commentary establishments dusted off their oppositional tone since it became clear last month that the current government, under erstwhile Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and now under caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, has collapsed, with new elections scheduled for November 1. Such outlets had dropped their longtime skepticism and hostility toward elected officials and their appointees once Bennet and Lapid formed a government and entered a rotation agreement regarding the premiership itself, now that Likud Party Chairman Netanyahu was forced out of office after eleven years.

“It’s important for us to remain objective,” explained pundit Ben Caspit.

Observers outside the mainstream noted last year a shift in tone once Bennett’s government took the reins. “Suddenly the people in government were buddy-buddy with the journalists covering us,” recalled Ministry of Education Director-General Moshe Sagi. “We’d gotten used to an adversarial relationship between the press and the government, which is great, because at least in theory, it keeps the politicians honest. But then we Bennett appointees and functionaries were greeted by all this friendliness and accommodation. Reporters were more interested in our fashion choices and hobbies than in any shortcomings of our policies or priorities. It’s good to see they haven’t dropped the oppositional attitude forever, only when certain people are or aren’t in power. Otherwise it could be cause for concern.”

Journalists at Kann, Channel 13, Yediot Aharonot, and other mainstream outlets began dedicating time each day to practicing adversarial questioning after letting the practice atrophy over the last thirteen months. “It’s actually kind of fun,” acknowledged Ayala Hasson. “I’d forgotten the frisson of righteousness you get when you ask a politician to explain something that doesn’t quite sit right, or when there’s some glaring hypocrisy on display. We haven’t exercised those mental and rhetorical muscles in a while. There’s a little bit of awkwardness because we haven’t done it very much for the last year or so, but I’m sure we’ll all get right back into it as soon as we have to confront Bibi and anyone who doesn’t look at him with naked hostility.”

Analysts have catalogued the same phenomenon in the US with the Biden administration as contrasted with mainstream coverage of the Trump campaign and administration, or of Republican figures in general.

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