Media drama: Secret job offers revealed due to intense confrontation
An unprecedented public battle has unfolded online between two leading legal correspondents, which very quickly escalated into personal attacks, accusations of lying, and the exposure of behind-the-scenes job offers.
An unusually sharp and intense battle has unfolded on the X network between two of Israel's most well-known legal correspondents, Avishai Grinzaig and Baruch Kra. At the center of the confrontation was a debate over the reliability of sources and reports, but the professional discussion very quickly turned into an exchange of barbs and personal accusations in front of tens of thousands of users.
Kra directed a barb at his colleague's professional conduct:
"You are not a bad journalist, you have received quite a few cool investigation materials in the last year, not much more than that... You have never conducted an in-depth investigation, by and large you are far from who you think you are."
According to him, the latest story proves that Grinzaig "pays his sources with extreme and distorted framing."
Grinzaig, for his part, replied that his publication was "correct and accurate." According to him, even before the publication, he received a phone call from the State Attorney's Office spokesperson, in which he was told that if the news were published, the Attorney General and the State Attorney would "issue a denial to all media outlets." He claims that, in the end, no denial was published.
From here, the argument became even more personal. Grinzaig accused Kra of "your erroneous and sometimes outright false publications," and mentioned a previous publication of his regarding the summoning of Ayelet Shaked for questioning. He even took a jab at his colleague: "You are a chatterbox and you are talking nonsense," and later wrote: "I am debating whether to accept your invitation to go low. Just remember that you have 10 kilograms of butter on your head."
Kra did not remain in debt. "So you are threatening now? Is this the new method? Fantastic," he wrote, claiming that Grinzaig is trying to divert the discussion from the professional debate using a veiled threat.
Grinzaig rejected the claim and replied that it was actually Kra who started the personal attack:
"I was offered your position 3 times. Twice at Channel 13, and once more at Walla. In all three of those times, the offer was rejected from my side."
He added that if Kra is "giving out grades," he should ask himself why, according to him, media outlets preferred him over Kra.
The confrontation between the two attracted a lot of attention online, with some posts accumulating tens of thousands of views and hundreds of comments and likes. What started as a disagreement over a legal report and the way a sensitive affair was covered turned in a short time into a public industry battle, in which two well-known journalists throw accusations at each other regarding reliability, sources, professional achievements, and even personal status in the industry.
