Channel 2 held a disciplinary hearing for a reporter who made disparaging remarks about the political right in a post to his personal Facebook page, Walla! news reports.
reporter Ilan Lukach insulted those on the political right while attempting to explain why the media leans to the political left.
“How many right-wing people are there at Channel 2? I won’t give a list of names, for obvious reasons, but there are right-wingers,” he wrote.
“Of course there are more left-wingers,” he continued, “but that’s because there is a correlation between IQ and a tendency to be leftist, and senior media figures are usually above average [in terms of intelligence].”
Lukach’s remarks are just the latest in a string of statements by media personalities that have caused controversy. In mid-January the left-wing Haaretz newspaper demanded an investigation after an employee of IDF Radio joked about the deadly explosion at a Palestinian Authority embassy, and expressed doubt over PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ commitment to peace.
Haaretz was accused of incitement less than two weeks later when columnist Uri Misgav called former MK Michael Ben-Ari a “Judeo Nazi.”
Political speech was in the news January due to teacher Adam Verta as well. Verta faced a disciplinary hearing for his highly politicized lessons in which he called the IDF “immoral” in class and for allegedly pushing an extreme-left agenda.
His case provoked outrage on the political left, where he was widely defended. But that outrage has been branded hypocritical by some, who note that left-wing media outlets have defended and advocated censorship of right-wing figures in the past.