MK Eichler
MK EichlerIsrael news photo: Flash 90

United Torah Jewry MK Yisrael Eichler met Sunday with the director of Army Radio, Yaron Dekel, at the latter's invitation. The meeting took place after Eichler numerous times accused Army Radio of being “anti-hareidi.”

Dekel told Eichler that in his opinion, the broadcasters on army radio were fair and did not single out the hareidi religious community for special castigation and criticism, as Eichler claims they did. Nevertheless, he said, he was willing to consider any and all complaints filed by Eichler or anyone else about biased or sloppy reporting regarding the community.

Eichler praised Dekel for the invitation, saying that more such meetings were needed with more media outlets. The media, he said was “an educational system that trains the public in either a positive or negative way – mostly negative. A good educator teaches by example, not just by words. But in bad education it is sufficient for the speaker to incite to hatred or create an atmosphere of immorality with just a few simple words. Human nature is just wired to respond to this,” Eichler told Dekel, “so even if you are hidden behind the microphone you have a responsibility to mold the opinions of a whole generation.

“One of the biggest lies in the world is that there is such a thing as an objective journalist,” Eichler added. “A journalist is not objective, and an objective person is not a journalist. As such I do not expect to hear objective stories when I turn on the news. The question is whether or not the journalist is a fair person and gives time to air all opinions, or only the ones he believes in, doing his best to defame those he disagrees with.”