Channel 12 journalist Ilan Lukatch has launched a sharp attack on his colleague, political commentator Amit Segal, following the exposure of text messages between Segal and Yonatan Urich, an adviser to Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Segal's response to the ensuing storm.
"A political commentator who rewrites and sharpens a politician's campaign opening speech is not a delicate tango but a breach of viewers' trust, and Urich is not a source but a feeding tube of spins from an enemy state," Lukatch wrote.
He concluded with a particularly harsh attack: "Amit carried out a suicide bombing at the news company and harmed innocent people."
Segal addressed the controversy, explaining that the relationship between journalists and their sources is not limited to receiving information alone, but sometimes includes exchanges of views and consultations.
Lukatch's remarks were written in response to Chagai Segal, Amit's father, who wrote: "There have been no finer days for Hebrew journalism than the last day: the great anxiety of the industry over the challenge to professional objectivity, the deterrence from any hint of alleged bias, the zealous insistence on not closing electoral sentiments before elections, the resolute call to distance any colleague in the profession who is perceived as siding with any spokesman. Finally, a longing for pure journalism."
