PM to give interviews to Channels 1, 2, not 10

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give interviews to Channel 1 and Channel 2 – but not to Channel 10, Haaretz reports.

The prime minister’s advisers refused to give Channel 10 an interview after the channel would not agree to the condition that its journalist Raviv Drucker not take part.

Drucker is the man who revealed the Bibi-tours affair several years ago and has in general been highly critical of the prime minister. Several weeks ago he published a draft of the state comptroller’s report, an action which Maariv columnist Kalman Liebskind called “deeply unprofessional.”

Liebskind heaped praise on Drucker’s journalism but said his zeal in wanting to replace Netanyahu in the coming election outshadowed his judgment and that publishing a report that was still a draft was both unprofessional and unethical.

With Likud slipping in the polls, the decision to nix a Channel 10 interview will certainly reverberate — whether in the favor of Likud or to its detriment, it remains to be seen.

“Bibi-tours” was an affair in which Prime Minister Netanyahu was alleged to have used state money to fund his travels, not all of which were official trips.