The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal’s “Best of the Web” at WSJ written by the editor, James Taranto.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Where’s My Bibi At?
The head of Israel’s government speaks to Congress next week, but his own countrymen may have difficulty tuning in, Reuters reports:
The head of Israel’s election commission acted on Monday to limit any pre-election boost Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may get from a March 3 speech to the U.S. Congress. . . .
Following complaints from opposition parties, election chief Salim Joubran decided that Netanyahu’s address should be broadcast with a five-minute delay in Israel, giving news editors time to cut any statements deemed partisan.
“Editors-in-chief of broadcast channels will watch and make sure that nothing the prime minister says can be construed as election campaigning,” Joubran said in a statement. “Any campaigning will be omitted from the broadcast.”
On the one hand, the Israelis seem confused about the difference between an editor and a government censor (although we hear some Israelis have Internet connections, which could enable them to get around the censorship).
On the other hand, imagine if our election commissioners did this to the State of the Union. An hourlong speech could be collapsed into a few minutes.
Other Than That, the Story Was Accurate
- “An earlier version of this column incorrectly stated that teacher layoffs in Milwaukee in 2010 happened because Gov. Scott Walker ‘cut state aid to education.’ The layoffs were made by the city’s school system because of a budget shortfall, before Mr. Walker took office in 2011.”—New York Times, Feb. 15
- “An earlier version of this article misstated the surname of a member of the band Vampire Weekend spotted at the Musso & Frank Grill. He is Ezra Koenig, not Ezra Klein. . . . An earlier version of this article misstated the given name of the man responsible for putting up the Hollywood sign. He was Harry Chandler, not Otis Chandler. . . . An earlier version of this article misspelled the first name, and misstated the surname, of a drag queen featured in a scene from the HBO series ‘The Comeback.’ He is RuPaul Charles, not Ru Paul.”—New York Times, Feb. 13 and 15
- “An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the number of appearances Brian Williams made on entertainment programs such as ‘Late Show With David Letterman,’ ‘The Tonight Show,’ ‘Ellen’ and ‘The Daily Show With Jon Stewart’ between 2006 and 2011. Williams made about 80 appearances on those programs and other entertainment shows during that period, according to the Internet Movie Database, not 146. A Washington Post analysis overcounted the entertainment shows, and the larger total also included appearances on ‘The Today Show,’ ‘Hardball With Chris Matthews,’ ‘Dateline,’ ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ and ‘Meet the Press,’ according to IMDB. Those shows are produced by NBC’s news divisions.”—Washington Post, Feb. 14
[Note: The excerpts above are from the Feb. 17 BOTW archives.] For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
