Shlomo Filber / שלמה פילבר
@filbers
Translated from Hebrew
Channel 14 is the most strategic and most important venture that the right wing has established in the past decade. Far beyond a media outlet, it is a rare and exceptional phenomenon on a global scale, in which a niche channel becomes, within a decade, the second largest (in my opinion, it is already in first place in terms of general exposure) in Israel.
Channel 14 is a strategic asset that not only brings information and enjoyment to viewers; it also shapes the agenda. It disrupted the entire system that the deep state operated under for decades, in which the media was in the pocket of the prosecution, the police, the military, and the economy.
Some right-wing figures were angry this week about Moshe Cohen-Eliya's departure from the Patriots. They need to take into account that Channel 14 is much more than one talent—whether it's Yinon Magal or Moshe Cohen-Eliya or any one of the dozens of young and talented people who founded it, passed through it, or serve there today and feel every day, every hour, that they are not just making television; they are making a revolution.
Making television is a very complex and intricate profession—every day, every hour, every item, you stand the test of the viewers. And the viewers are not a monolith. They are a complex mosaic of ages, identities, positions, and tastes. It is work that you cannot plan most of the time. In a news channel, you respond to events and are required to do so quickly and accurately. If you are late, you are already irrelevant.
"Going on air" is a complete operation of excellent and dedicated professionals behind the scenes who are required to operate like an orchestra that knows how to improvise, and in the end, it should sound like a piece they rehearsed for weeks.
And in the end, even the talents—the faces on the screen, the selection of presenters. The casting, the adaptation to audiences, building the rhythm of the program, their ability to be disciplined, to adapt themselves to the instructions of the control room and the directors who see the big picture while sitting in the studio—it is a profession and a talent.
And only when all of this works do the viewers come—they come voluntarily, without commitment, they don't pay anything, and the way to lose them is a single click on the remote. (As we saw this week with some of the channel's viewers "threatening")
For years in Israel, people like Erez Tal and Avi Nir from Channel 12 were crowned as "television geniuses" who read the Israeli viewer correctly, his taste. They understand how to "make television" and get more and more Israelis to sit down of their own initiative in the living room and press the remote.
By any professional measure, what the leaders of Channel 14 accomplished in zero time is far more professional and successful than them. The learning curve at Channel 14 was short, the flexibility great, the decisions sharp, and the ratings climb accordingly—400% growth in 3 years. (And yes, even their rivals in approach helped them a bit.)
Moshe Cohen-Eliya certainly has excellent television skills, and also a combative, revolutionary approach (which I personally really like), with creative thinking (which may also work well). But it is forbidden to enslave this success to one person, no matter how talented he may be.
From my acquaintance, the decisions in this channel are all made to turn it into the largest and most influential channel in Israel, and that is how the disagreements in the family this week should also be examined.
3:11 AM · Apr 24, 2026 · 26K Views
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