“Is it the freedom of speech? The thought? Wanting to close a TV channel, determine only one narrative in the discourse?” Yanon Magal in an aggressive interview // Reporter: Adi Rubinstein, photography: Gregory Yarin
A year and a half ago I met Yanon Magal and the “Patriots” gang for the first time. The program then began to soar into the realms of double-digit ratings, even if it did not stick a peg there. The forced panel led by him leads the broadcasts of “Now 14”, whose general viewing figures have strengthened since the beginning of the war and reached, according to data from the Rating Committee, 8.2 percent viewing at peak time in November. In multi-year terms, the general trend is an increase. As mentioned, the ratings of “The Patriots” lead the channel and sometimes even reach double digits.
Another thing that’s happened since October 7th is that after a few weeks of a conciliatory, cohesive, unifying tone, a sickle cut back to the good old content, which includes foot glitches for anything that even smacks of left or even center. “Brothers in arms”, Knesset members from the opposition and not only, the Israeli media, and of course Bank Leumi. We were maybe brothers for about four months, then on TV, not only on the 14th, we were informed that it was over and we could go back to fighting. Magal, as you will find out immediately, claims that he stands at the gate, and does not feel like fighting at all, but only tells the truth that is not heard anywhere else.
If Ben Caspit, my partner in presenting the program on the radio, is a journalist, then I am also a journalist, and if he has journalistic ethics – I also have journalistic ethics. One of the things I am accused of is that I am a Bibiist, but Ben Caspit is a Bibiist of the other side”
So we met again, this time for some personal conversations, to summarize a year that made Magal, at the age of 55, the face of an entire camp, and the enemy of the other camp. As the new year unfolds, Magal may be ready to regret some of the things he has done, but unsurprisingly he claims that the coming year will be the year of the real breakthrough – not only for him in the personal sense, but for everything he represents from the material to the spirit.
It can be said that in the past year and with the beginning of the new year, you have become part of the mainstream of the Israeli media. You are not an underdog anymore.
“I don’t belong to the mainstream in the media, I may be on my way there, but right now I’m still in some ways an underdog. Maybe in ten years I’ll be there, or someone else with a world view like mine will be there, but right now the mainstream of Israeli television is mostly left-wing. It It is true that we are in the process of growing in front of your channels, and I wish for myself that in the coming year it will stabilize much more and that we will be able to have a constant double-digit rating, I definitely think it can come this year.”
You know, I didn’t even tell the people closest to me that I was coming to interview you, so they wouldn’t screw up my face. And we live not far from each other. Indeed in some districts you are not far from being the center.
“Of course, your milieu is the real mouthpiece. Under the guise of liberalism, you are actually behaving in a fascism way. If I say something you don’t like, you rush to shut me up. Is it freedom of speech? The thought? To want to close a TV channel, to determine only One narrative in the bush. Look at the Oslo Accords, for example. They sang a song for peace. But you didn’t see it anywhere Today in my eyes, and certainly in the media, is a comedy.”
“There are definitely things I regret, and if I need to apologize for having made a mistake, I know how to apologize.” In the 103FM studio, photo: Yossi Zeliger
You are ashamed, because apart from opinions, more than once on your many platforms you spread fake news, act irresponsibly and do not apply the basic journalistic ethics to you.
“First of all, there are certainly things that I regret, and if I need to apologize for having made a mistake, I know how to apologize. But you decided that I am a journalist who does not respect journalistic ethics. Let’s put it this way, if Ben Caspit, my partner in presenting the program on the radio, is a journalist, So I am also a journalist, and if he has journalistic ethics – I also have journalistic ethics. One of the things I am accused of is that I am a Bibiist, but Ben Caspit is a Bibiist of the other side.”
Aren’t you a bibist?
“I think that Bibi Netanyahu is one of the greatest leaders in the history of the Jewish people, and I think that’s how he will be recorded in the history books. But my thesis is much bigger than ‘Bibi-no-Bibi’. My worldview is much bigger, which cannot be said On the left-wing media in Israel, you won’t find a single commentator who says something in his favor? Is there anyone on channel 14 who knows how to criticize Bibi when necessary?”
The full interview – on Friday in a double and special supplement of “Shishab” and on the “Israel Hayom” website
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