The Eilat Journalists Panel discussed on Tuesday the subject of whether the media is leftist, but did not invite the national-religious Arutz 7 to participate. The omission was not overlooked by panel participant Ariel Mayor Ron Nachman, who said that excluding Arutz-7 provided proof that the media is clearly leftist.
“It is against the nationalist camp,” he told the panel. “What about culture? We [the right-wing] do not have culture? What about the arts - we don’t have any artists?”
He said that the religious community in Judea and Samaria suffers from a media onslaught that was accelerated with the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. “Everyone had to apologize,” he stated.” I didn’t apologize, and I have nothing to apologize for."
Former Knesset Member Eliezer Cohen (Israel Our Home) said he hopes the media continues to lean even more leftward. “The people understand. They are smarter than the media. The further left the media, the more the public will vote for a right-wing government,” he explained.
One of the most surprising statement was from Haaretz editor Dov Alfon, who claimed that the media is right-wing, and especially television stations. "They want to improve their ratings and most of their viewers are right-wing,” he said. Ex-MK Cohen noted in response that a senior Haaretz correspondent “wrote favorable articles about the enemy at the same time it was attacking Israel. That's not left?”
Rabbi Professor MK Daniel Hershkowitz, chairman of the Jewish Home party, said a more serious question is whether the Israeli media is anti-Zionist.
Roee Katz, of the Hebrew Walla website, claimed that the media is not leftist but often has a “certain direction.” He argued that Israeli newspapers and electronic media are varied and cover the entire political spectrum.