He is a powerful Cabinet minister and a potential heir to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She’s an influential anchor for Israel’s state-run TV channel who led its recent election night coverage.
Together they have emerged as the country’s most high-profile power couple, with every step of their budding romance chronicled by paparazzi and gossip columnists. Beyond the headlines, though, newlyweds Gideon Saar and Geula Even have also generated a debate over what some critics say is already an incestuous relationship between politicians and the press.
Suspicions run deep in Israel, a small country with a long tradition of reporters befriending those they cover and a revolving door between the two professions. Media ownership is tightly concentrated, with some outlets harbouring distinct political agendas.
The Saar-Even partnership is the most obvious manifestation of these worlds intersecting. Both are recently divorced and have children from previous marriages, and the disclosure that Even is pregnant has added to the intrigue. Their wedding last month was a top news story in Israel, immediately drawing speculation over how Even could objectively cover a political world in which her husband is such a major player.
“In a perfect world, this kind of relationship is a problem. But this is a small community and we have to learn to live with it,” said Hanoch Marmari, editor-in-chief of the Seventh Eye, a media watchdog website. “At least it is out in the open and everyone knows they have to be careful. I don’t think their job performance will be influenced, and if it is, we will know how to handle that, too.”
Israel TV is supposed to be insulated from government control, run by an independent board of directors. Other main TV channels are privately owned but licensed by the government.
To be sure, Israel is not alone in coping with the potential conflict of interests that arise from such strange bedfellows.
Maria Shriver decided to take leave from NBC News when her then-husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, ran for governor of California; her NBC colleague Andrea Mitchell stayed on the air throughout her spouse Alan Greenspan’s tenure as chairman of the Federal Reserve. James Rubin remained in his position as State Department spokesman in the Clinton White House after marrying CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour.
France has seen several high-profile politician-journalist couples. Prominent TV star Anne Sinclair quit journalism when her then-husband, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, joined the government in the 1990s. She left Strauss-Kahn, who later became head of the International Monetary Fund, after he faced a string of sex-related scandals in recent years. She has since resumed journalism and is now chief editor of the French Huffington Post.
French President Francois Hollande’s partner is a well-known political journalist. Valerie Trierweiler has continued to work for the Paris Match magazine since his election last year, writing occasional literary columns and drawing both criticism and praise for her choice to keep writing.
In her first post-election article, she wrote an essay in praise of Eleanor Roosevelt, who worked as a journalist while her husband was US president.
“Look! A journalist first lady isn’t anything new,” Trierweiler wrote. “Clearly, we have to look to the other side of the Atlantic to find this. And not scream about a scandal.”
In Israel, a country of just eight million people, close links between media and public office have gone on for years.
“There are those who defend their friendships with politicians as a way of gaining access. But history proves that they never actually end up writing anything critical of their friends,” said Dror Globerman, a TV journalist and host of “People,” a current affairs documentary TV show.
“Many of the journalists are connected to politicians somehow, and many have their own interests and agendas,” he said.
