A young man died yesterday after hours of excruciating pain. He and his friends accidentally wandered into a mine field in the north of Israel. A mine explosion got his leg blown up, bleeding for hours on the ground. Finally, the rescue helicopter that had come to — well, rescue him — didn’t tie his stretcher properly and he fell from a great height and died instantly.
His family and friends hasn’t had time to absorb the news. Some of them were probably not even yet notified of his fate. And the man hasn’t been buried yet! But both Channel 10 News and Channel 1 chose to broadcast the video footage in which the man is seen suffering, and then dying — all of it was captured by the camera, making a true snuff film. In addition to the extremely insensitive decision to broadcast the footage, viewers were not warned in advance that they are about to watch a real man dying… A real man who died just an hour or two ago.
Is it because the dead man was an Israeli-Arab that it’s OK to turn his death into a cheap entertainment spectacle?
I am deeply ashamed of both Channel 10 and Channel 1 for their actions and decisions last night, and I expect them to make a sincere apology and to take measures that would prevent such a thing from happening again.
P.S.
Apparently Channel 2 News has added the video footage to its Mako web site. I think this too is extremely inappropriate.
Yonit Levi is Channel 2’s anchor goddess. 
Yesterday 36% of Israel’s TV screens were tuned “10” — mine including — on the occasion of a “good-trash” celebration, known as the Survivor 10 Live Finale, taking place in a major basketball arena, no less. After 16 successful seasons in which the reality show Survivor has been a definite “hit” in America, it was high time for the gold-laying chicken to learn how to speak Hebrew. Still, it wasn’t a simple case of a format purchasing and localization. Israel 10 went several steps ahead and has grossly altered the known format, turning the fast-paced reality into a semi-scripted soap opera. Countless magazine articles have published multiple claims of game manipulation by the Israeli production, ranging from the supply of groceries to the castaways, and up to changing the rules on-the-fly in order to keep their preferred characters inside the game, when these faced an imminent threat of dismissal by their fellow tribe members. Personally, I have no idea if these claims have any truth in them; the production certainly denies such allegations. One thing is for sure, the show fulfilled its purpose as a major rating magnet, and provided Channel 10 with a widespread buzz, that is normally the exclusive property of Channel 2.
Many of these ‘song and dance’ reality shows, involve hundreds of contestants vie for a beginning position that ends up weeks later with only one candidate winning first place. In the most recent of these programs, “Born to dance”, hosted by Israel’s “favorite MC” Tzvika Hadar; three contestants reached the finals, in which a young man named Natanel (pictured) won a first prize of NS 100,000. While this is not big money as compared to something in American or UK TV, it gives the final contestants a lot of exposure that can result in being awarded private entertainment contracts later on. Ratings are very important to these programs and Israel’s two commercial TV channels, Channel 2 and Channel 10 are constantly competing with each other for a big share of the nightly viewing audience. Since both channels have commercials, that “share” is very important as it means more contracts with companies that pay top money for prime-time ‘spots’ on TV. 
Ahh, Tiv Taam: that non-kosher Israeli supermarket chain that always seems to be in the news these days – from an adverse publicity mode, that is. Once again the chain has been the subject of intense investigation by the Channel 2 TV watch dog program, Kolbotek, narrated by Rafi Ginat. And as in previous investigations, the problem still seems to center around the way the chain’s poultry products are handled prior to sale to the general public. 
Tiv Taam, which has stores in all major cities, has become very popular with many segments of the population, particularly those from the former Soviet Union and with foreign diplomats and relocated foreign workers. In fact, Tiv Taam’s entry into Israel’s consumer market has resulted in lost revenues for many established supermarket chains, and even resulted in some branches actually closing (Kosmos in Kibbutz Gaash is a good example). 
Announcement of the formation of a Palestinian “National Unity” government hasn’t been positively received by neither Israel nor the United States. Following a state of near civil war between factions led by Hamas leader 
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