Media circus causes panic in Israel

“I'd propose that we don’t start to panic. The Israeli public knows how to act. Everybody knows what to do if the alarm goes off,” said Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, who was trying to lower the public’s anxiety level — but to no avail.

Huldai, who's also a brigadier general in the reserves and a former fighter pilot, was being interviewed July 8 for the main news broadcast on Channel 2, shortly after the siren went off in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, and a rocket fired from Gaza was shot down over the skies of Tel Aviv. The original purpose of the interview was to inform Tel Aviv residents that the municipality had decided to open its public shelters, and to deliver a soothing message. Instead, Huldai found himself in the center of a media event that is disconcerting to say the least.

Since the early hours of that afternoon, the country’s three main TV channels had entered into a broadcasting marathon of nonstop live coverage. Their studios were filled with officers from the Home Front Command, inflammatory politicians and military experts. Every few minutes reporters on the scene interrupted the broadcast to report on more rockets being fired. Again and again, the screens switched to live shots of Tel Aviv residents running for cover, while sirens wailed in the background. Again and again, they showed screen shots of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip being shot down. And in between all of that, they aired short interviews with the terrified residents of the south.

Millions of anxious Israelis were glued to their TV sets, starving for information. Instead they were subjected to stern-faced news anchors who exacerbated the drama with their bellicose tone. Those anchors kept reporting on how the Cabinet granted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) permission to draft as many as 40,000 reservists if necessary.