The franchisees must be required to refer to science for two hours per month, as part of the documentary broadcasts, and at least part of the time to devote to local news; oblige the news companies to hire a consultant for scientific affairs; and change the hostile attitude. At the same time, the mystical programs must be reduced if not eliminated
Avi Blizovsky
In honor of the Council of the Second Television and Radio Authority
5 Knafi Nesher St
Jerusalem
By Avi Blizovsky
Writer at Galileo, editor (voluntarily) of the science news site "Hidaan" (http://www.hayadan.org.il) and deputy editor of InformationWeek
Note: This letter is also coordinated with Prof. Ilya Leibovich from Tel Aviv University, and is ready to be at your disposal
Subject: Application of obligation to broadcast science programs
Last week you published in the media that you are inviting the public to comment on a variety of issues related to the obligations of broadcasting franchisees, including sectors that do not receive enough expression in broadcasting, social and cultural issues that do not receive sufficient prominence, the appropriate mix of programs (documentary, drama, entertainment, etc.), the scope of broadcasting The news and the news issues that do not receive sufficient coverage, appropriate emphasis for the educational television broadcasts on Channel 2, the advertisement quota and the question of their placement in the programs, as well as the measures that the Council must take to ensure the adequacy of the production on Channel 2.
Well, when Channel 2 was established, its franchisees were asked to allocate broadcasting hours to many good fields - news, entertainment, drama, Israel's heritage and more. For some reason, one vital area was left off the list and the franchises took pains to ignore it. This is the field of science and technology. Now Channel 10 also continues to ignore the most important area of our lives. For some reason, everyone imitates a tasteless decision that was made during the years of competition between Yediot Ahronoth and Maariv, and Yediot, in order to win over Maariv, decided to ignore areas that were considered to have low ratings. The field of science fell victim.
The State of Israel, thanks to investment in education in the past years and thanks to the blessed aliyah, is a power on a global scale in the field of science. Just a week ago, a study was published by a researcher from the Weizmann Institute who managed to grow human kidneys in the body of a mouse and thereby open an opening, albeit for the distant future, of growing kidney tissue in the body of kidney failure patients. An expert from the Technion was able to identify a gene that causes heart disease in diabetics, and this too from the last two weeks. In recent years, there has been a noticeable cut in the state's investment in these areas, as well as in scientific education for the youth. This means that in the generation growing up now we will not have scientists but an illiterate public I mean. Is this what the government means?
Unfortunately, this kind of news is published in the Haaretz newspaper at best, if at all, and does not reach the general public. No wonder that in this situation there is a general hostility to science, making it a target for cuts. Among the public, scientists are treated as eccentrics and even worse - they are influenced by the myth of the mad scientist who appears, for example, in children's programs as an example of science. A scientific program, if only one a month, would allow a platform to discuss these developments and their consequences and dispel this hostility.
The late American astronomer Carl Sagan said (among other things in his book "A Haunted World", also published in Hebrew by Hed Artzi in 1997) that the stupidity of American television is the cause of America's decline, nothing less and nothing more. Most of the minds in US universities are foreigners. After the September 11th attack, many blamed the superficiality and shallowness of television, which preferred to cut back on news and increase entertainment, and certainly avoided in-depth investigations, for the surprise that landed on the American public. Even after they announced the success of human cloning, they begin to hear criticism that the public was not sufficiently prepared and the discussions today are more of an emotional nature than expressing an interpretation of facts.
And instead of treating the viewing public as idiots, they should be given the correct information, and not even hesitate to hold open studios on these questions. They are no less important to our lives than the political issues. We must not forget that without science we would not have the technology that includes television, the Internet and more, it would not be possible to introduce new drugs into the drug basket (which is talked about in the news) because these drugs would not have been developed.
As soon as we as a society do not show that it is important, and on the other hand we allocate airtime to mystic programs about how we want a generation of scientists, high-tech people and educated people to grow up, if we ignore them on issues whose time has passed hundreds of years ago. At the time when mysticism ruled the world, the average life expectancy was 35 years. In the last hundred years it has more than doubled thanks to science.
Therefore, we must stop believing in the superstition that it is forbidden to talk about science because it lowers ratings, and show that it is possible to discuss the important questions at hand in an easy and clear way, as is done for example in the BBC.
The way to do this is to oblige the franchisees two hours a month, as part of the documentary broadcasts, to refer to science, and at least part of the time to devote to local news; oblige the news companies to hire a consultant for scientific affairs; and change the hostile attitude. At the same time, the mystic programs should be reduced if not canceled, as was done recently on the first channel.
H.M. and Prof. Ilya Leibovitz are ready to be at your disposal for whatever is required.
Avi Blizovsky (communication details)
