Below is the final episode of the Tribal Update, Latma’s flagship satirical newscast. We launched the show 4 years ago. During this period, we produced more than 200 shows. It is a production record without peer in Israeli television history.
Over the past three years, we have been in on again, off again negotiations with Israel public television Channel 1 to produce the show as the station’s prime time satire show. Over the past year, those negotiations intensified and the leaders of the station made me believe that the production contract was on its way. In anticipation of moving to a half hour television format, we expanded our internet crew, This raised our costs tremendously. Based on what I was told by the Channel 1 executives, I told our wonderful donors that it would just be a matter of months until Channel 1 picked up the reins and funded the show.
But then everything fell apart. Netanyahu’s appointed Chairman of Israel Broadcasting Authority Amir Gilat decided he didn’t want us on television after all. He wanted to produce a historical documentary, and wanted the money earmarked for Latma. So after making groundless accusations against us in the media he convened the content committee of Channel 1 and cancelled the contract – which I never received anyway and transferred the money to his pet production.
Latma cannot afford to maintain The Tribal Update in its current form. We will use our remaining funds to rebuild our core capacities on our website, expanding our commentaries and producing much less expensive short satirical pieces. We will also begin organizing on a financial model of funding through micro-funding and crowd-funding to give ourselves financial stability. This process will take a few months.
Yes, we were lied to, repeatedly. But then again, the treatment we received at the hands of Channel 1 just proves our point. The Israeli media is impossibly post-Zionist. The Tribal Update is without a doubt the best satire show ever produced in this country. And the fact that we cannot get a television contract for our show — which by all accounts would receive massive rating — shows the inherent and all-encompassing bias and hatred driving the media elites in this country — and the cowardice and fecklessness of Likud apparatchiks in the face of this situation.
I will have more to say about our experience once the dust clears, and our plans are set.
In the meantime, enjoy our final show. I will post the show as a separate item when we post it on You Tube.
Below, as always, you can find the link to donate to Latma. Like I said, we are reorganizing. But your financial support for our endeavors remains as vital as it has always been. And I can’t tell you how much we appreciate it.
Latma is funded by donations from private individuals who believe that the voice of Zionism must be heard, loud and clear, in Israel and throughout the world. We need your help in order to stay open and continue sounding our voices.
If you are in the United States, Latma is funded by donations to the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Israel Security Project which I direct. If you would like to contribute to our work, which is funded entirely by viewer contributions, please go to this link.
For donations outside the US, here is a link to the donations page for our Israeli non-profit, the Zionist Incubator. You can make credit card donations to Latma by contributing to our non-profit.
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