“The intense media preoccupation is impacting the public and the lawmakers who are voting,” Nave said. “Although it is only the 120 lawmakers who have the right to vote, there is tremendous importance in having the press involved in that the coverage could tilt the election a certain way, so the reports and the information that comes out are things that the members of Knesset could take into consideration before voting.”
“When I ask reporters how they build their stories, they say, ‘We consult with the veteran ‘Knesset sages’ and other sources, and we formulate assessments,” Golan said. “In my conversations with reporters, I always say that their conversations with their sources and with other members of Knesset need to taken with a grain of salt. The reason is that, on the one hand, members of Knesset are swayed by public opinion and the reports which appear in the press. On the other hand, there is no correlation between the reports and the manner in which the lawmakers will vote.”
“The press creates its ‘winners and losers map’ on a daily basis,” Golan said. “Nonetheless, given the lack of additional tools with which one can obtain information, like research reports and polling that is seen during campaigns for national elections, assessments and newspaper commentary could be misleading and inaccurate. At the end of the day, these reports about who the lawmakers will vote for are interpreted as irrefutable truth, particularly for those candidates who are on the fence. On that basis, the campaign and can take a turn.”
“As such, the role played by the media in this campaign is dramatic, more so than the elections for the Knesset, which are more reliant on research and polling,” he said. “The press can determine the course of the race, and so it needs to be much more careful in its predictions.”
In Israel, those seeking the presidency need to enlist the support of 10 members of Knesset. There are no clear standards of qualification, nor are there any minimum requirements for the job. There is a glaring lack of public oversight which is necessary in determining what agenda a certain presidential candidate will pursue if and when he or she is elected.
By law, “any Israeli citizen who is a resident of Israel is eligible to be a candidate for president of the State of Israel.” In this situation, the members of Knesset not only become those doing the electing, but those who do the vetting as well.
With all due respect, isn’t this the job of reporters? You can’t tell them not to report these things.
“Our request to the press is to be restrained and to be careful in their reportage,” Golan said. “It would not be unreasonable for the press to take a step back and check the information that is coming to them. A lot of the information is libelous, and some of it is based on rumors and innuendo, and they have been posted on social media and reported on by the media. Some of this information has led to the launching of criminal investigations. These reports are important from a public standpoint, but one also needs to take into account the timing of the reports and to consider that perhaps this is all part of a tactic to sabotage the candidacy of a competitor. At the end of the day, some of these investigations ended with no indictments, nothing.”
“The press need to understand that since members of Knesset rely on it for information, it has tremendous power in influencing who the next president will be,” Nave said. “Part of our job as campaigners is to make sure that the reports are done as professionally, respectfully, and objectively as possible. There needs to be a free press here, but it should be sustained by reliable, factually-based information.”
Perhaps the rumor mill can be explained by the fact that the press ignored the whispers and allegations against Moshe Katsav before his election as president. Could that explain what we are witnessing now? Perhaps there is a desire here to avoid a similar situation in which a president is investigated in the middle of his term in office.
“Certainly,” Nave said. “The Israeli public endured a public trauma that ended with a trial and conviction of a president, Moshe Katsav, who was accused and convicted of rape and who today is serving a jail sentence. This isn’t the first time that the Israel Police are knocking on the president’s door. Without a doubt, Peres’ term in office did a great deal in rehabilitating the institution of the presidency and its image. That is why the Knesset is burdened with the responsibility that obligates it to avoid any risk in picking a president. The Israeli public, which doesn’t have the right to vote in this election, will not be so forgiving of underhanded political dealing that will lead to the election of an unworthy candidate and the revelations of past, alleged transgressions, even those that are less dramatic and serious than those we have seen in years past.”