PM: Media reports on comptroller findings ‘radically biased’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took aim at the Israeli media on Tuesday for its “radically biased” coverage of the state comptroller’s report released earlier in the day on his travel expenses — before he took office — that raised “fears of criminality” over an alleged double-billing scheme.

“I suppose it’s inevitable that the reports on the state comptroller report would be radically biased and ignore basic facts,” Netanyahu charged in a Tuesday evening Facebook post.

“Channel 10 really outdid themselves and didn’t even allow one of my spokespeople to represent my position. [Channel 10 correspondent Raviv] Drucker interviewed [correspondent Baruch] Kra, then Kra interviewed Drucker. This is balance at its best…” Netanyahu mocked.

“This is another attempt by the media to damage the Likud government. What they failed to do at the polls, they are attempting to achieve by other means,” Netanyahu wrote.

The prime minister has over the years had a testy relationship with the Israeli media, and Channel 10 especially, with Netanyahu regularly leveling charges of bias. In the 2015 elections, he accused the media of waging a campaign against him in a bid to see the Israeli left, led by the center-left party Zionist Union, get elected.

In 2011, Channel 10 broke the travel expenses story, dubbed “Bibi Tours” in the Hebrew press, and has aired several exposés about Netanyahu and members of his circle, including his wife.

The privately owned outlet has faced years of financial troubles and threats of closure, pointing the finger at Netanyahu who as communications minister dithered on finding solutions. The channel claimed personal animus over the negative coverage drove the prime minister’s considerations on whether to extend the debt-ridden outlet’s franchise in 2014.

A solution was found at the last possible moment and Channel 10 continues to air.

Released Tuesday, the state comptroller’s report found that some of Netanyahu’s trips abroad when he was finance minister between 2003 and 2005 were funded by private donors, creating the impression of bribery and conflict of interests.

The report said Netanyahu did not properly report these contributions and that El Al flight expenses were “double-billed” to both the state and private bodies. It also accused the Netanyahu family of “lack of clarity” over its accounting and using bonus points accrued by the state for private use.

The Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday said the report indicated a “mountain was made out of a molehill” in the affair, and charged that the state comptroller was attempting to retroactively apply regulations on ministerial travel that were formulated in 2008.

Netanyahu denied the allegations of criminal conduct and said he was “convinced” Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit would not find reason to launch an investigation.

Mandelblit said Tuesday that he would hold an immediate inquiry into the findings of the state comptroller’s report.

These allegations “must be inspected without delay, in a direct and professional manner,” the attorney general said. “We won’t deviate from professional standards.”