frgdr.com » TV

Look! Everybody’s Here Again!

Shahar Golan — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:25:00 +0000

When it comes to television programming it seems that the pendulum is close to the edge. People have stopped watching TV, that is except for 14 year olds who are keen on buying whatever TV is selling. Whether the medium will die or correct itself in time, I guess we’ll find out sooner or later.

In this atmosphere of 57 channels and nothin’ on, the one thing that almost never disappoints is nostalgia. Israel Educational Television (IETV) has just announced that its programs, both classic and new, will be made available for online viewing on its new website. Established in 1965, IETV has produced shows that taught us English, math, and road safety, and gave us our very own sitcom in Hebrew.

Since many of these modern classics are already available on YouTube, I guess the folks at IETV figured if they can’t beat them, might as well join them and make the materials legally available for free.

Since the website will not be launched until next week, here are two teaser ads to tickle your taste buds:

Momo Talpaz Bids Adieu

Shahar Golan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:06:29 +0000

Israeli entertainer Dudu Topaz admitted today of assaulting three TV executives. It is only because of our primitive brains that we tend to confuse people we recognize with people we know. There are a million zingers to tell and loads of archive footage to rehash, but at the end of the day this is just a sad and tragic story about falling in love with a reflection in a pool.

Israelis who grew up in the 1970s might remember a Sesame Street puppet who hosted “Here Is Your Life”. In the original version the character’s name is Guy Smiley but when the local Hebrew version had to pick a name they went for Momo Talpaz, a play on Dudu Topaz’s name – the only real megastar that Israeli TV ever had. This is my farewell:

How New Technologies Made TV Worse

Shahar Golan — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:18:40 +0000

We are in the middle of a digital revolution:Twitter, YouTube, mobiles, LCD – the only sure thing about these new technologies is that we do not really know how they will affect our lives. Amidst this wonderful wave of transformation some disturbing trends have emerged. Following are a few examples from Israeli TV wherein new technologies facilitate in its change for the worse:

Distorted video proportions

Between 4:3 and 16:9, analog and HDTV, a mixture of formats that is indicative of a TV world that hasn’t decided on a new standard and has to make do. Until a universal standard is agreed upon and implemented, are we destined for years and years of stretched heads?


Left: That man is not this fat! Channel 10 News visually distorts an interview from UK’s Sky News.		Right: These people are not this thin! Channel 2’s UK reporter submits a visually distorted news item.

Web quality footage when better is available

News desks get access to virtually every other news feed in the world and record most of it for future use, but lately it seems it became too much of a hassle for them to use the recorded footage. Searching for a video on YouTube is so easy and fast that even when doing a piece about an event that happened a day earlier, news channels slack off by broadcasting pixelated videos from the web, as opposed to broadcast-level footage.


Left: Channel 2 News features coverage by German ARD using a compressed YouTube video.		Right: Channel 2 News covers Bar Refaeli’s interview with Letterman on CBS using YouTube posted video.

Web videos as legitimate news items

The blurring of boundaries between news and entertainment is a serious issue, and part of it manifests in this trend of deeming web-content newsworthy. In this age of Context Collapse a private posting can be escalated into prime-time news:


Left: Channel 10 News covers a satirical YouTube video that miscaptions the Fuehrer so as to make him complain about parking spaces in Tel-Aviv.		Right: For that extra kick, channel 10’s reporter shows said video to a Holocaust survivor who had never seen it before. Sought emotional impact achieved.

Part 2 of this post will be published during the next few months.

The Rachel Maddow Show Presents: Illegal Schmillegal

Shahar Golan — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:48:27 +0000

If the law says that torture is illegal and the president wants people to be tortured anyway, then how should a president proceed? One idea is to get government lawyers to say: “Illegal schmillegal, we say it’s just fine.” – that is the cue-card version of what in the Bush Justice Department. That’s what senior Bush administration lawyers told their boss.

- – The Rachel Maddow Show, February 16, 2009

Fans of Rachel Maddow must have been googling for this since Monday, and now their prayers have been answered: I am pretty certain that the moment you heard Rachel utter the words ‘illegal-schmillegal‘ on her MSNBC show, you thought to yourself: Hey! This would be great as my new email notification sound…

Well, consider this an early gift for the Jewish holiday of Purim from me to you:
[See original post to listen to audio.]

You can download Rachel Maddow saying ‘illegal-schmillegal’ in WAV format or in MP3 format. Right-click and ’save target as’ to your computer.

Maggi, Pierce And E.J. – Linda’s Red Button

Shahar Golan — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:27:39 +0000

Artist: Maggi, Pierce And E.J.
Track: Linda’s Red Button
Album: The Red Album
Genre: Folk Rock / Soul / Indie
Label: EMPrecords
Release Date: 1998

[See original post to listen to audio.]
Buy this MP3 track or buy the entire album.

Maggi, Pierce And E.J. aka MPE Band – Linda’s Red Button – lyrics

Sittin’ here in Linda’s bed
Tryin to listen to the things inside my head

I was gonna write a song
But I turned the TV on instead
Woke up with some ideas
Went down to make some tea
I had no strength I just had to see

Any creativity
That was once inside of me
Is now sucked away by MTV,
VH1, HBO, CNN, Cinemax
My brain melts like wax

I know it would have been a hit
If I’d have gotten down to it
But no, instead I know
That my role model’s queer
The trial’s nowhere near
Moe Lester’s skin is clear
The world will end this year

If all that matters is untrue
Hey what does this red button do?
I don’t have a clue

I was gonna write a song
But I turned the TV on instead

Sittin’ here in Linda’s bed
Tryin to listen to the things inside my head

It’s A Wonderful Country After All

Shahar Golan — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:29:12 +0000

Look on us,
Look on them -
Who is more similar to you?

- -- mock rapper X-Plain -- Throws on you TIL

With 4 out of 5 Israelis supporting the current military campaign in Gaza, Channel 2’s popular satirical show Eretz Nehederet (A Wonderful Country) could have chosen to go on vaction so not to be controversial under fire. They could have ran old episodes for that fluffy feel-good feeling viewers might crave, and no one would have contested. But the higher-ups decided to be brave and present critical views when they can still make a difference.

Now on its sixth season and with more than 30 percent of Israelis watching, Eretz Nehederet is at the cutting edge when it comes to Israeli satire, slaughtering whatever sacred cows are left in this country, using a tongue-in-cheek approach. Check out three short examples (translated to English) from the last two weeks, the first two videos were broadcast just 3 days after the campaign had started.

Ehud Barak predicting the phases of war from euphoria to dysphoria:

The public opinion of acceptable body count:

Rapping for world understanding:

Tonight on Your Evening News: Cast Lead and Must Leather

Shahar Golan — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:04:51 +0000

Wars don’t happen in winter anymore
Even for us it is a bit too cold to hate
Wars don’t happen in winter anymore
Even for us it’s a bit too cold to conquer

– - “Big Hero” by Si Himan (translated from Hebrew)

I have already written on Israeli journalists playing dress-up, but that was during peacetime. Now that a new war might be imminent, it seems our journalists collectively decided to wear uniform in the form of leather jackets. I have been glued to the TV screen during the past few days, zapping between Channel One, Channel Two and Channel Ten – and it looks like one hideous leatherwear catalog from the 1990’s that magically came to life:

We already knew soldiers have their standard operating procedures – but now we know TV newsmen have them too.

Following are some of the responses I received (translated from Hebrew) after publishing this post:

Alon Ben-David, Channel 10’s senior defense correspondent:

Good to know that while half a million people are under a barrage of rockets, there is someone monitoring fashion issues.

Paz Schwartz, Channel 10’s correspondent:

Amusing. I liked it.

You Cannot Put a Price Tag on That!

Shahar Golan — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:51:59 +0000

While I realize the entire world is slowly going into a recession, and I do acknowledge that publicly funded broadcast television has always been on the brink of bankruptcy – still, it seems Israel’s IBA News has really gone too far this time:
This past Thursday I was watching Channel 1’s evening news, when the anchorman turned to culture correspondent Dana Herman and I noticed there was something under the back of her shirt, an object that looked eerily similar to a price tag:

Is this a major faux pas on Herman’s part, or does Channel 1 force their reporters to perform the ol’ wear-once-then-return-for-a-refund trick? …and if that is the case, can someone tell the director not to shoot the reporters ~~in the back~~ from the back?

While we’re at it, could someone at Channel 10 talk to the cleaning people? Tell them that you may turn a blind eye when they occasionally do not clean the dust from the studios, but they cannot ignore a big rope lying around on the floor. This is from this past Thursday’s London & Kirschenbaum:

Today On Fox News: Ehud Barak Upskirt

Shahar Golan — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:22:34 +0000

A couple of hours ago, Ehud Barak, Israeli Minister of Defense and former Prime Minister, was interviewed live on Fox News. As always, Barak looked very respectable - on Fox’s Live Desk camera 1:

…but camera 2 showed Barak’s sitting position with his legs uncrossed and very, very far from each other:

Now, I am not sure how average Fox viewers perceive this image and whether they assume this is the customary way Sultans sit in the desert - but as an Israeli viewer it made me smile as it is the all-Israeli male sitting position, legs uncrossed, crotch-area enhanced, a posture indicative of a long military service in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Analog News Editors In A Digital World – A Case Study

Shahar Golan — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:17:03 +0000

There are four major methods used on TV to obscure a person’s face so that he would not be recognized:

Pixelization: during editing, a video graphics filter is used to lower the resolution of the footage
Black bars: during editing, a graphical element is superimposed over the footage
Extreme close-up: focusing during filming on a single facial feature, such as lips or eyes
Silhouette: adjusting the camera exposure during filming so that the person appears totally black

The latter method was used during yesterday’s evening news, in a pre-taped press conference. Since this was not a live broadcast, there was no reason for any slip-up, and for the most part I could only see the silhouette of the woman talking. But when some still photojournalists used their camera flash, it lit the entire room and for a split second revealed the face of the woman.
Now perhaps during the 1990’s this kind of incident would not amount to much, since you could not rewind live TV or use your computer to download the news – but those analog days are long gone, and it is about time people in the Israeli media would recognize that fact.

Since this is not the first time I have noticed the Israeli media dropping the ball on this issue, I thought I would present a case study of the three Israeli broadcast channels, examining yesterday’s cover of that news conference:

Channel 1

image 1: the black silhouette

image 2: the black silhouette when the camera flash was fired

image 3: the previous image after a color level correction

Channel 2

image 1: the black silhouette

image 2: the black silhouette when the camera flash was fired

image 3: the previous image after a color level correction

Channel 10

image 1: the black silhouette

image 2: the black silhouette when the camera flash was fired and pixelization was done

image 3: the previous image after a color level correction

image 4: the black silhouette when the camera flash was fired without pixelization

image 5: the previous image after a color level correction

A couple of notes:
1. Channel 10 was the only one to use pixelization when the camera flashes fired, but since their editing work was unproffesional they only obscured some of the lit frames, and actually revealed the most facial details.
2. All three media outlets most likely broke a moral agreement with the interviewee when they did not keep her anonymity.
3. All three media outlets most likely broke Israeli law when they did not keep the anonymity of the interviewee, as she is a mother of an under-aged suspect of a crime. Revealing any detail about a suspect or even about a convicted criminal who is under the age of 18 is illegal in Israel. The same goes for the suspect’s family.
4. All the video footage was downloaded from the official website of each news outlet. Had I had a digital video recorder, I could have produced even better quality images.
5. This post does not break the law, as it is fair use commentary on events that happened.

Here is a bonus courtesy of Channel 2, who went even further than the rest, showing a homemade greeting card the suspect made for his mother. If you look closely, you could decypher the names of all the people in that family:

frgdr.com » TV

Look! Everybody’s Here Again!

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