;.l1,6,60,66,1,0,10,75,192,2,15,20,25,127,10,0,
;.l5,10,75,192,2,15,20,25,127,20,0,
MEDIA BIAS
TO:    David bar-Ilan, Eye on Media, Jlem Post
FROM:  Steve Amdur, Kibbutz Haon, Jordan Valley, 15170 Israel.
       Telephone:  972-6-757572; FAX:  972-6-757554
DATE:  
RE:	  Iran is plotting to overthrow Peres  
	  The Opposition is Fellow-Travelling Khomeni-Symp's 
REF:   English Radio News 5/15 PM
CC:
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Someone, apparently Peres, continues, sporadically, to orchestratethis theme; after more than a month one can't excuse it asunintentional remarks.

In featuring as news a theory which no facts sustain -- althoughboth Peres and the USA have made McCarthy-like allusions toholding such otherwise unspecified evidence --  Israel's Stete-RunRadio would seem to be doing a bit of back-scratching for thepresent administration.       

The disturbing question is:  why is Peres doing it?  It might bemerely a bit of CEO eccentricity; an idea fixee; but Peres seemsto have survived as a professional politician by remaining toocrafty to get trapped even in a fixed position, let alone an ideefixee.                                        

The theme is that the nation's enemies -- a role Peres seemsinclined to reserve for Iran -- are plotting to overthrow thePeres government, by staging a spectacular terrorist incident.

The sub-text is that, since the Likud seeks to supplant the Peresadministration, the Likud is -- in some deliberately unspecifiedand unintelligible sense -- associated with the enemies of Israel.

Associating the domestic opposition with the nation's mostprominent international enemy is the usual technique of anincumbent regime that seeks to set the stage for a possiblesuspension of democratic process, if a situation develops in whichthat regime faces electoral defeat.

That is, one fears that Peres is trying to create a climate ofpublic opinion sufficient for invoking martial law and suspendingthe elections, if a pre-election terrorist incident seems to makehis defeat likely.

.p
MEDIA BIAS
TO:    David bar-Ilan, Eye on Media, Jlem Post
FROM:  Steve Amdur, Kibbutz Haon, Jordan Valley, 15170 Israel.
       Telephone:  972-6-757572; FAX:  972-6-757554
DATE:  5/14/96
RE:    
REF:   JP 10 May 96:  Makovsky interview of Netanyahu
CC:
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SUMMARY:  This a typical, not excessive, example of the sort of"adversarial interview" lately popular.  The same technique wasrecently applied by a CNN Correspondent to the UN SecretaryGeneral.
l5
TEXT:  
	"Which Netanyahu should the public believe?"
	"How can the public expect you to ...."
	"Don't you think that the Israeli taxpayer has a right toknow your vision for how you would expland settlements?"
	"I guess there is a reason why you are avoiding ... "
	"Don't [the public] have a right to know whom you wouldselect [as Minister of Defense]?
l1
COMMENT: The Interviewer as Prosecuting Attorney

In Plato's Paradise, an interviewer critically elicits thestructure of the subject's thought.  In Perry Mason's courthouse,the prosecuting attorney uses every possible trick of rhetoric toadvance the preconceived conclusion of a vested interest.
	In Jefferson's Utopia, a Free Press is the disinterestguardian of the Public's Right to Know, on the basis of whichknowlege the public, as jury, selects the best-qualifiedrepresentative government. 
	In Stalin's Star Chamber, the roles of judge and defenseattorney are eclipsed by that of Prosecuting Attorney.            


POSTSCRIPT:                                     
	The Israel CEO has limited power to effect any non-emergencychanges that require substantial funding; he is dependent notmerely upon the legislature, but upon Cabinet Minister withquaisi-feudal power.  [In that respect, Israel Ministers are farmore powerful than their USA counterparts.]

	The notion that candidates for Prime Minister ought torequired before election to declare their choices for CabinetMinister is an intriguing one, although not yet tried in Israelpolitics, due to the Penelope Principle.

