[followup] Anatomy of a Media Manipulation Scandal

Ynet’s Ronen Bergman has more information concerning #Bild's deputy editor Paul Ronzheimer and Leaked Hamas Document.

Netanyahu's office cultivated a relationship with Bild newspaper, particularly through its deputy editor Paul Ronzheimer and political correspondent Philipp Piatov. The relationship involved "compensatory perks" including exclusive interviews with Israeli President Herzog and National Security Advisor Hanegbi, and privileged IDF access.

[…] The Prime Minister's Office invested most of its resources in maintaining a relationship with the newspaper's deputy editor, Paul Ronzheimer, a prominent German journalist. Military sources say that every time he visited Israel, the PM's Office would put heavy pressure on the IDF spokesperson to give him preferential treatment, arrange interviews, and ensure he was first among German journalists - and among the first foreign journalists in general - to enter the Gaza Strip immediately after the war began.

[…] In #Israel, he received interviews with senior officials, including two with President Isaac Herzog and a podcast with National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi - far more access than most journalists receive, even from media outlets considered more important to Israel.

The German journalists, unfamiliar with Arabic (according to Ynet’s writer), published a distorted version of the document to support #Netanyahu's narrative against the hostage deal protests. French newspaper Libération's fact-checkers later revealed that Bild's reporting had grossly misrepresented the document's content and falsely attributed it to #Sinwar.

Hebrew https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/syu700cpmke

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