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eppur_se_muova

(36,227 posts)
Thu Oct 18, 2012, 11:04 PM Oct 2012

Things to come? "Sheldon Adelson Shakes Up Israeli Newspaper Market" (NPR)

by Sheera Frenkel

October 18, 2012 Israel's newsstands are looking noticeably less crowded these days, as a crisis in the Israeli press threatens several of the country's oldest publications. Media experts in Israel say that market competition and a tendency to buy political influence through media ownership have crippled Israel's once-thriving newspaper market.

And many want to put the blame on one man: Sheldon Adelson, the U.S. casino mogul who launched a free newspaper in Israel in 2007 and has close ties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The effects of Adelson's free paper are being felt acutely by Maariv, one of the country's oldest newspapers.

Earlier this month, dozens of striking journalists gathered outside the newspaper's Tel Aviv offices. They chanted slogans against Netanyahu, claiming that he is destroying Israel's free press.

"Maariv is fighting for its life, like many other newspapers around the world," says Matan Drori, the newspaper's foreign editor. "But there are some special circumstances in this country."
***
more: http://www.npr.org/2012/10/18/162816525/sheldon-adelson-shakes-up-israeli-newspaper-market




This is why Big Government is needed -- to fight Big Money.




NOTE TO MODS: This article is about influence-buying by Adelson. It is NOT a story primarily about Israel, and should NOT be moved to the Israel/ME Forum.

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