Isn’t watching games during a terrible terror attack a measure of cruelty [in Maimonides’ words]??

I don’t think so. Certainly no worse than wasting time on rolling live coverage and updates. This is the tragedy of a few people, and my heart goes out to them, but there are people like that every day. The fact that they make more noise about terror attacks than about accidents or illnesses is merely a media matter.

Watching a game isn’t a waste of time?

Why? Is it forbidden to enjoy yourself? Is eating a good meal a waste of time? Or reading a book?

My argument is this:

You wrote: “The coverage is a matter of ratings and filling airtime (what’s called ‘rolling live coverage’). Anyone who watches that collection of nonsense and waste of time—that’s his problem.”
And that’s despite the fact that one can ostensibly derive enjoyment from following the “rolling coverage.”

Presumably, in your view there is room to unwind and enjoy oneself during the day, and still actions that involve pure enjoyment and no practical or intellectual benefit count as a ‘waste of time’.

So I’m asking: what is the difference between enjoying following rolling coverage and enjoying following a game? In both cases you can get the final results the next morning in a matter of seconds. Neither form of enjoyment contributes to physical fitness, intelligence, or any skill whatsoever. Both seem to me similar to reading gossip columns in the newspaper. Isn’t that so?

Do you really think there’s no difference between terror attacks and a car accident? After all, a terror attack is murder directed against Jews—don’t you see that as something worthy of media coverage?
P.S. The media coverage was very bad in this case because they filmed the event itself live and without censorship or blurring. I assume you’ve already seen the complaint from the security forces…

Haim, what does that have to do with it? The enjoyment from a game is not from the result but from the play itself. And it definitely involves intelligence and impressive human abilities. If someone enjoys following meaningless prattle that says nothing—good for him.

Ishay, where did I say it isn’t worthy of coverage? I said that what was done there wasn’t coverage but endless babbling to death without a shred of relevant information for hours.

I don’t think the enjoyment in watching comes from the play itself teaching us about intelligence and impressive human abilities.

If that were really the case, people would be able to enjoy watching a game even when they already knew the results in advance, and even detached from the team’s situation.

Suppose in a game all the players wore masks, and there were no details revealing which team it was, its standing in the league, whether it would be promoted or relegated, etc. Without all that surrounding context, would you still watch games with similar frequency?

If not, that’s a sign that the main enjoyment is not from the play itself.

You remind me of the rabbis who asked Leibowitz’s well-known joke (without knowing he was the source): why are 22 players chasing one ball? Give them another 21 balls and leave us in peace.
I don’t see any point in hairsplitting with someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.