Futures: The bill to dissolve the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation ("Kan") will not be enacted in Israel's law books. Not because it's an insane bill by a deranged member of Knesset, but because its purpose isn't in the realm of legislation and regulation. It's in the realm of organized crime. Its purpose: extortion through threats.

Shabi Gatenio reported here today about the bill proposed by MK Tali Gottlieb, initiated by Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi - both from Likud, the party led by an unpopular Prime Minister facing a serious, evidence-heavy indictment and a dark future of a state commission of inquiry and worldwide disgrace.

Reading Karhi & Gottlieb's bill is like taking a tour through a psychopath's mind. Any high school student in communications studies could explain why this is a deranged document, trampling fundamental principles regarding media, democracy, and politics.

In several paragraphs, Karhi and Gottlieb propose to destroy a media mechanism shaped by 200 years of accumulated historical experience to best serve public interest, and replace it with a government propaganda machine subject to the whims of a few people in the ruling party.

The fact that this is a deranged proposal is not, of course, a guarantee that it's a bill without realistic feasibility. Since December 2022, we've been living in a mirror world where any abomination is possible. After appointing a convicted criminal as Minister of Police and someone indicted for serious crimes as Prime Minister, what's creating a private propaganda mechanism with public funding?

The reason this bill won't become law isn't because it's fascistic, but because that's not its purpose. Netanyahu's people placed this bill on the Knesset table to send a clear signal to the Broadcasting Corporation people: to the Corporation Council, CEO Golan Yochpaz, Chief Editor Lior Landenberg, division heads, news editors, desk editors, journalists, and parking lot security guards.

Today, Walla reported about an episode from Army Radio broadcasts, another public media outlet operating in Israel alongside the Broadcasting Corporation. Prime Minister Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid spoke in the plenum. Netanyahu's speech was broadcast in full, for 45 minutes. Like in the Soviet Union back then. Lapid's speech was cut off after less than two minutes.

This is what Benjamin Netanyahu, Yair Netanyahu, Shlomo Karhi, and Tali Gottlieb want. Why go through all the trouble of legislation, privatization, closure, appointments, struggles, and opposition? Corrupt politicians don't care what the journalist working for them is called or what their employment model is. They just need to obey. In fact, it's enough for them to be scared.

Karhi, Gottlieb, and Netanyahu will be satisfied if journalists in the Broadcasting Corporation and Army Radio constantly guess what the government wants them to broadcast - and especially what it doesn't want them to broadcast. When internal censorship works at full force, there's no real need for external censorship. That's just a bonus.

Passing legislation that ends with establishing a mechanism to manage "Kan" from Netanyahu's office is a long and complicated process. It's much simpler to hold Golan Yochpaz by the throat so he'll shove Netanyahu's mouthpiece Ayala Hasson down our throats as an analyst for everything, in the model of Amit Segal from News 12. It's enough for editing rooms to get the hint. It's enough for the editor to say: we need balance, this is too extreme, maybe soften it, there's legal exposure here, shorten it it's too long, we don't have room the lineup is full.

At this point, someone might ask: who cares what is or isn't broadcast on the Corporation, a low-ratings body trailing behind commercial TV companies. This would be, of course, a colossal mistake. Beyond the fact that ratings don't reflect true exposure to news in an era of fragmented viewing and viral distribution, the Corporation's importance lies in its potential ability to set a benchmark.

In commercial news, journalists, even the best ones, will always be bound by owners' interests. Guy Peleg and Raviv Drucker will never be able to do something that Coca-Cola or Blavatnik wouldn't want. Public news, however much we bash it, mock it, or look down on it, is where the upper bar of broadcast journalism is set in terms of ethics and values.

If "Kan" continues the "Hassonization" process, thinks twice before every item about the government or an item that might make Netanyahu scratch his leg, it will have sharp and painful consequences. Even if we don't see any expression of it in the rating tables.

In response to Gatenio's report, the Corporation stated that the bills "won't deter us from continuing our journalistic and professional work - without fear or favor". Anyone concerned about Israel's fate should pray these aren't empty words.