We were not brought up to be leaders. My father, the
individualist, preferred to observe life and not to take an active part, and my
diligent and shy mother worked mainly behind the scenes. My brother and I
learnt from both of them: we grew up knowing who we were but, in contrast to
Dale Carnegie, we never tried to
influence people
My brother became a journalist, and has been working,
mainly, in Israeli Public Television, since the 1970s. He is well respected
(and well liked), and has the reputation of a serious journalist. He even got
the most prestigious journalism award in Israel The Sokolov Award. But
throughout the years when his peers
assumed management positions, my brother preferred to remain a
journalist. Instead, he used his time to study the field and became an expert.
He created and developed new news programs, wrote articles and did special
projects. He even wrote a book Breaking News – Television News In Hard Times, which is the
reference book on the subject and is a required reading in communication
courses at colleges and universities.
In the last few months the Israeli government has started
taking steps towards the termination of public television and radio under the
pretext of efficiency. In Israel each household, which owns a television set,
has to pay an annual tax of about 100$ which goes towrd public broadcast. Our
prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken it upon himself to save the
Israelis this enormous sum-- the equivalent of about 20 portions falafel in
pita (the national food in Israel which is sold on the street).
In the US people do not pay special tax for public
broadcasting (PBS), and several times a year, live on the air, each public
station has to beg for money from its faithful audience. I feel that this type
of arrangement compromises the work of the journalists who find themselves in
the role of fundraisers. Besides, those tedious campaigns come instead of the
regular programing.
Public broadcasting, which started in Great Britain, could
be found in all democratic countries. It is funded by tax money, and is
accountable only to the public. We should not expect to get it for free, if the
public does not pay it means that someone else does. We do not wish to be
dependent of the arbitrary interests of politicians and millionaires. In Dallas
TX, for example, as a means of enticing people to donate money, the local
public radio station had to find sponsors who donated money to give as awards
to the listeners. We had several great breakfasts at Le Madeleine -- a French
café I n Dallas as a reward for our contribution.
In Israel, until now public stations did not have to beg for
money, my brother was able to just be a journalist. Sadly desperate times call
for desperate measures, Israel Broadcast Authority (with its audience) is
fighting for its survival. Last week I was surprised to see my brother taking
his gloves off at an interview on commercial channel where he advocated public
broadcasting. It transpired that the interviewer and the other journalists in
the studio all got all their training in public television.
They eventually moved on,
but my brother who is going to be 67 next January stayed. He never left
because he has always believed in public television, and also because it is the natural venue for his type of
more serious journalism.
It will be a very sad
day for Israel, and for our democracy
and culture if public broadcasting ceases to exist.
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