The truth is a guideline

I don't remember the exact quote, but it's from Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the Black Pearl. It's something like, "They're not rules, really... more like guidelines."

That seems to be the case with Israeli journalism.

When I was studying journalism in the U.S. just a couple of years ago, it was pounded into our heads how important every detail was. Someone's age should be correct. The spelling of a person's name is sacred. Math in an article should be correct (ie, "four killed in accident" should not be followed with "the victims were two boys and a girl").

And facts and quotes? Don't mess 'em up, or not only do you risk losing your job and any future jobs, but you risk being sued.

It's much different here.

I never realized it until a friend of mine was featured in an Israeli newspaper article. He happens to be probably one of the oldest, if not the oldest, person to ever enlist in a combat unit during peacetime.

The article included: completely posed pictures (not bad, in and of themselves), his age being wrong, his former job and salary being wrong, both he and his commander being misquoted, and more.

And when I questioned him, he said that his Israeli friends and family all told him that's normal.

Then, when my boss saw the article, and I explained about how wrong it was, he was utterly shocked that I might actually believe anything I ever read in a newspaper.

Wow.

Today, or in Friday's "real" paper (I'm not sure which), there was an article about my project closing. And not only was the copyediting horrid, but our CEO's name was mispelled, and a lot of the information was mostly false or conjecture.

Eeek.

So readers be warned... if you're reading The Jerusalem Post or Maariv, just know that they apparently don't care about the accuracy of the information they're spreading out.

Hmph.