TV Host Guy Pines Slams i24NEWS Campaign as 'Inventing' Facts

Israeli television personality Guy Pines has publicly criticized i24NEWS, an Israeli international news channel, over its new campaign for the 2026 elections. The campaign, launched Wednesday, touts i24NEWS as "the only news channel in Israel" that interviews a wide range of political figures, including Benjamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz, and Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Pines, a prominent host on Channel 12, commented on the campaign's promotional video shared on social media, stating, "Just a reminder that if Bibi had agreed to interviews on channels he finds less comfortable and answered questions, they would have been happy to host him. But since the October 7th failure, he fears and avoids interviews on various channels. Don't invent."

The i24NEWS campaign appears to be a jab at domestic Israeli news outlets, emphasizing its focus on hard news over reality television, cooking shows, or celebrity gossip. The promotional material explicitly states, "No reality and no cooking, not a coalition channel nor an opposition channel, only news." It further lists politicians like Netanyahu, Gantz, Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman, Ben-Gvir, and Yair Golan as figures viewers will see on their channel, implying these are the "people who really determine what happens here."

Pines's remark suggests that i24NEWS is misrepresenting the interview landscape by implying Netanyahu is readily available for interviews on all channels, when in fact, according to Pines, he has been avoiding certain outlets since the October 7th Hamas attacks.