;.l1,6,60,66,1,0,10,75,192,2,15,20,25,127,10,0,
MEDIA BIAS
TO:    David bar-Ilan, Eye on Media, Jlem Post
FROM:  Steve Amdur, Kibbutz Haon, Jordan Valley, 15170 Israel.
       Telephone:  972-6-6656-572; FAX:  972-6-6656-554
DATE:  5/29/96
RE:    Bogus Sharansky ad
REF:   English radio/TV news 5/28-date.
CC:
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This seems to have been a perfectly-timed major-league DirtyTrick, probably by some deniable branch of the Labour Party -- egRamon --  that to date has been under-reported in the IsraelEnglish media, including the Post.  

	English radio initially gave the impression that the Russianpress had merely published conflicting unauthorized statements ofendoresement by Sharanksy.  It was then reported merely that thepress had been ordered to  stop running those unauthorized ads.

	An acquaintance has pointed out the Russian olim dependalmost entirely on the Russian press for their information; andhas suggested that several of the  Russian papers are controlledby pro-Labour factors. 

	Facts are that Sharansky is personally pro-Likud butpolitically neutral; so a claim that he endoresed Peres was false,but he was not in a position to rebut it by affirming theopposite.  
	The timing -- 5/27, I think -- was such that, given the cutoff on election advertising, Sharansky had no opportunity topublicize a contradiction on the mass media.  
	The JP (5/29) notes, following Sharansky,  that the ads cost$100,000; as Deep Throat said to Woodward & Bernstein, "follow themoney"; that's bound to  be a big story. Whatever person or groupcould spend that much money, is bound to have either acquired orspent the money with dubious legality. 
