On July 24th, a new law passed unanimously in Israel’s legislature that will enable a 50% vote of the legislature — Israel’s Knesset — to nullify a ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court.
On that same day, The Week magazine headlined “Critics worry a controversial new law will trigger a constitutional crisis — or even a civil war”, and said nothing about what the new law is or does, but devoted its nearly a thousand words to describing what its proponents and opponents were saying for and against it.
CNN headlined “Israeli government passes law to limit Supreme Court power, defying mass protests”, and likewise said nothing about what the new law is or does, but did say something vague about its impact: that an opponent of the new law said it (somehow) would be “stripping the Supreme Court of its power to block government decisions,” which, though that would be the result whenever a majority of the Knesset would override the Supreme Court, still said nothing about what the law contains.
Fox News bannered “Israel parliament passes Netanyahu’s judicial reform bill amid mass protests”, and likewise said nothing about the law’s contents, but it did say that an opponent of the legislation asserted “this is the defeat of Israeli democracy,” as-if an apartheid nation such as Israel, ever WAS a democracy. But, again, nothing about the new law’s contents.
The Vox ‘news’-site, which touts itself as being serious and analytical (they call themselves “explanatory journalism”), headlined “What Israel’s new judicial law reveals about its democracy”, and pretended that this is just a serious tweaking of Israel’s Governmental system, and that, “Among other things, the bill would have empowered the Knesset (Israel’s legislature) to overturn court decisions with a simple majority vote and given the government near-total control over the process of appointing new judges.” “Would have?” It wasn’t passed into law that day? Then who had eliminated that provision from it, and when and how? Their ‘journalist’ said nothing about such questions. That’s supposed to be ‘news’-reporting? And “explanatory”?
Within Israel itself, the Times of Israel headlined “Coalition passes 1st judicial overhaul law, limiting review of government decisions”, and likewise said nothing about the new law’s contents. Israel’s Haaretz headlined “Israeli Lawmakers React to Passage of Pivotal Judicial Coup Law; Netanyahu: ‘A Necessary Democratic Step’”, and likewise said nothing about the new law’s contents.
However, on that very same day, July 24th, Wikipedia, at its article “2023 Israeli judicial reform”, said “The Supreme Court can declare Knesset legislation unconstitutional. The reform would permit the Knesset to override such a ruling by reintroducing the legislation and approving it with a majority of Knesset members.” This was a long-winded way of saying that the new law will allow a majority of the legislature to nullify a ruling by the Supreme Court, but it DID say this, it did say this about the new law’s contents. Why could not The West’s ‘news’-media have done as much?
All of the foregoing shows several things:
The public will read or listen to, and even pay for — buy — fake news that omits the very core of the news-story and contains only fluff and propaganda about it: like a building that’s heavy on the decorations but lacking the necessary foundations to stand up in use.
This trashiness of the ‘news’-media is bipartisan, not left nor right.
How can the public vote in a democracy on the basis of such trashy ‘journalism’?
Isn’t such bad ‘journalism’ antithetical to ANY democracy?
This article about the news-media is being submitted to all of them, for publication. Which — if any — of them would publish such an article? Web-search the phrase “How Deceitful ‘News’-Media Are” to find out.
Reposts are welcomed with the reference to ORIENTAL REVIEW.
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