A lesson in journalism as Israel’s spokeperson is taken to the cleaners
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
A short interview on Norwegian television shows good journalism in operation: know your facts; don’t let the interviewee wriggle out of answering the question or deflect the conversation; be persistent, calm, firm and insist on an answer.
It’s not rocket science so we wonder why so few mainstream media interviewers fail to understand the basics.
RK
š³š“Norway Broadcasting Corporationās
Yama Wolasmal, interviews Israeli spokesperson, David Mencer. This should be taught in all journalism schools. I spoke at the Norwegian Journalism Institute last year @Pressenshus in Oslo & was so impressed with the rigour of their work. pic.twitter.com/4YS8p7qSHU— Samira Mohyeddin Ų³Ł ŪŲ±Ų§ (@SMohyeddin) April 27, 2024
If only the BBC Journalists interviewed this way. The only questions he didnāt ask, that would have made an impact were 1. 15000 children have been murdered, none were Terrorists, 2. In the first four months you indiscriminately dropped 65000 tons of bombs on Gaza in three months, many thousands of innocent civilian men, women and children will have died and are buried under the rubble.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240104-israel-dropped-65000-tonnes-of-bombs-on-gaza-in-89-days/
Yes, as Bernard questions, it’s tragic that the BBC so often lacks this standard of journalism when it’s most needed. There have been a couple of truly awful performances here- no names. Perhaps Mencer thinks the UN needs to take a leaf out of Israel’s book.
What an excellent interview The only thing perhaps he should have said was in response to the 13,000 plus figure was to suggest that the number equates to roughly all the men killed which suggests that Israel is saying every man in Gaza is a combatant which is clearly ridiculous He was getting more and more rattled and appeared surprised that he wasnt being believed
The rest of Mencer’s Wikispooks entry makes interesting reading :
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/David_Mencer
David Mencer, the former director of Labour Friends of Israel?
Very good interviewer. Very poorly trained spokesperson put up by the Israeli Government!
Excellent journalism at last, good to hear persistence and David Mencer being held to account by Yama Wolasmal
Keep up the excellent work.