David Baker’s cell phone is overworked. So much so, in fact, that the senior foreign press coordinator for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon jokes about the smoke regularly billowing from his ringing front pocket.

But it’s all in a day’s work for Baker, who serves as a liaison between Sharon and the international media.

“It’s a good relationship,” Baker told a small collection of students, faculty and community members gathered in The Maroon office last Friday afternoon. “I have what [the press] needs, and they have what I need.”

Baker, who has served under the Sharon administration for more than four years (in addition to seven months within the Ehud Barak administration), said he feels that the Israeli government, particularly under Sharon, is much more accessible than any other government in the world.

“We do more with the current administration than ever before,” Baker said.

Baker’s job entails discussing Israeli policy with an estimated 400 reporters each day. In addition, Baker is in the forefront with what he likes to call “mass marketing the media.”

“David’s job is not to change minds,” said Adam Bronstone, director of community relations for the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, in his introduction to Baker’s talk. “His main focus is to give balance.”

According to Baker, balance is something than can often be hard to come by in today’s visual media.

“I think, sometimes, the Israeli cause sometimes lends itself more to print,” Baker said. “Let’s take TV, for instance … If we have a tank protecting the community and searching for suicide bombers, it doesn’t show that way on the news. The question becomes, ‘Where’s that tank going? What’s it doing?'”

However, Baker insists that all facets of the media work to get his message spread across the world.

“In the end, news is news,” Baker said. “We tell the truth, and it works.”

Chuck Alexander can be reached at [email protected].