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Since TV news reporters are usually shot from the waist up, viewers toy with the idea that except for the expensive jacket, their favorite anchorman could be wearing his underwear and a pair of slippers. I felt this subject cannot be ignored any longer and investigated the subject. Here is what I have found:

Test case #1

Amir Bar-Shalom, chief military correspondent for Israel’s Channel 1 news, delivered his report live from the field this evening. Channel 1’s devoted viewers saw a respectable attire: a long sleeve shirt, sleeves tszujed a bit due to the hot weather - all in all, a respectable journalist.

As Bar-Shalom went off the air, Channel 10’s camera caught him (above, right) on his way to the air-conditioned broadcasting van. Channel 10’s devoted viewers saw a slacker: three quarter pants with a shirt untucked, and a pair of flip-flops - all in all, a guy on vacation.

Test case #2

Baruch Kra, legal affairs correspondent for Israel’s Channel 10 news on the other hand, likes to play dress up. Back in June 23, this is what he looked like on the air at 8:02pm: a jacket and tie - this guy knows what he is talking about.

…and courtesy of Channel 10’s ‘newsroom behind the anchor desk’ design, we can see what Kra was wearing (above, center) just 21 minutes later, off the air at 8:23pm: jeans and a T-shirt - this guy must be an intern.

This evening Israeli Channel 10 News covered Brad Pitt’s microphone malfunctioning on Fox’s Idol Gives Back and stage manager Debbie McVickers shining as she came to the rescue. Channel 10’s fluffy-issues correspondent Haim Etgar dubbed the incident ‘a huge screw-up’, right before using a caption that seemed like it was spelled by an 11 years old ‘Idol’ fan:

Huge screw-up indeed! Thanks for attending mandatory English class in school, Haim.

Channel 10 is the youngest of Israel’s three broadcast channels. Established January 28th, 2002, it is just over 6 years old and still struggling to snatch viewers from the leading Channel 2.

Over the years I have noticed Channel 10 is much too absorbed in finding a magic logo, a magic tagline, a magic bullet to make it grab the big ratings, believing that in substance versus style, the latter wins. The logo in the corner of my television screen kept changing, or in Madison Avenue Newspeak: evolving. Disregarding the use of different colors, on and off shadows and the odd use of 3D, I counted four principle logos in 6 years – that’s one logo makeover every two years!

Except for the logos changing, note that in 2005 the channel changed its name from ‘Channel 10′ to ‘Israel 10′ – and back to ‘Channel 10′ in 2006.

In addition, Channel 10 had used five different ad agencies over the years, which translates to the advertising budget changing hands every 15 months:
2002: Gitam BBDO
2003: Reuveni Pridan
2006: Grey Interactive Israel (Adler Chomski & Warshavsky)
2007: Zarmon Goldman
2008: in house

How many years does Nike use the ‘Just do it’ tagline? Twenty? Oh, no, Channel 10 will have none of that… I have counted five different taglines the channel used over the years:
2002: The entire country is 10 (כל המדינה עשר)
2002: That’s what TV is for (בשביל זה יש טלויזיה)
2004: Everyone is already watching 10 (כולם כבר רואים 10)
2005: TV that speaks to you (טלויזיה שמדברת אליך)
2006: Changing the picture (משנה את התמונה)

What? You want more? I feel like I am one bad sweater away from a Mike Levey Amazing Discoveries infomercial… Okay, okay, last one:

In six years, Channel 10 had managed to use three different domains as its main website: israel10.tv, 10.tv and nana10.co.il

6 years, 4 logos, 2 name changes, 5 ad agencies, 5 taglines, 3 websites.
Consistency, thy name is Channel 10.

It’s one thing to steal material from other comics, but to take the funny out of a sketch – there is no excuse for that.
Israeli Channel 10’s The Tonight Show with Lior Shlein, which on a regular day is a poor man’s Leno in Hebrew, had the audacity tonight to plagiarize an excellent skit by Moni Moshonov and Gidi Gov. Shlein, the self-confessed biggest fan of Moshonov, Bar-Aba and the entire ‘A Conventional One-time Evening’ (Erev Had-Peami Konventsionali), should have known better than to rip off a 1986 sketch, not give it credit, and hope no one will notice.

The basic plot of the sketch is of a censor man who barges in during the show, forbidding certain harmless words from being said because they indirectly link to not-so-nice words, rendering useless an otherwise hilarious joke.

Here is some of tonight’s show:

 

…and here is the 1986 version:

 

…and as soon as I will find my audio cassette recording, I will post the much better 1990 version.
 
 

Shhh… Lying…