Big Don
Sr. Grandmaster
Double standard
Why is it that Mel Gibson is ripped by the media for anti-Semitic statements, and Oliver Stone isnÂ’t?
By Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe EXCERPT: August 4, 2010
LATE IN July, a Hollywood honcho uncorks a blast of anti-Semitic bile, the sort of malignant stereotype about Jews one might expect from David Duke or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Is that newsworthy?
It certainly was in 2006, when Mel Gibson, arrested in Malibu for drunken driving, demanded to know whether the arresting deputy was Jewish, and then launched into an anti-Semitic rant: “[Expletive] Jews,’’ he raged. “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.’’
What followed was a Category 4 media hurricane.
<<<SNIP>>>
Pervading much of the mediaÂ’s coverage and commentary was a tone of unforgiving revulsion.
“Let’s not cut Mel Gibson even the tiniest bit of slack,’’ began Eugene Robinson’s op-ed column in The Washington Post. Talent agent Ari Emanuel’s call for Gibson to be blacklisted was widely noted: “People in the entertainment business, whether Jew or gentile, need to demonstrate that they understand how much is at stake in this by professionally shunning Mel Gibson and refusing to work with him,’’ Emanuel wrote in an open letter on the Huffington Post.
On “The View,’’ Barbara Walters announced that she wouldn’t see any more of Gibson’s movies. Slate explained “How To Boycott Mel Gibson.’’ CNN’s Brooke Anderson, co-host of “Showbiz Tonight,’’ described “a sudden explosion of outrage with some of the most influential people in Hollywood now saying they will never work with Mel Gibson again.’’ As if to confirm the point, ABC cancelled a Holocaust-themed mini-series it had been developing with Gibson.
But when, almost exactly four years later, another Hollywood bigfoot uttered an anti-Semitic rant, the reaction couldnÂ’t have been more different.
In a July 25 interview with the Times of London, filmmaker Oliver Stone complained that “Jewish domination of the media’’ focuses too much attention on the Holocaust, and prevents Americans from understanding Hitler (and Stalin) “in context’’ — a wrong he intends to right in a documentary he is making for Showtime. Stone described these media-controlling Jews as “the most powerful lobby in Washington’’ — “hard workers’’ who “stay on top of every comment,’’ and are responsible for the fact that “Israel has [expletive]-up United States foreign policy for years.’’
Like Gibson blaming Jews for the planet’s wars, Stone’s lament about Jewish control of the media is classic anti-Semitism, straight out of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’’ and Henry Ford’s “The International Jew.’’ Unlike Gibson, however, Stone gave vent to his bigotry while perfectly sober.
<<<SNIP>>>Media mogul Haim Saban did urge Showtime to cancel Stone’s documentary, and posted an online message calling on Hollywood to give Stone “a vigorous shove into the land of forced retirement.’’ But few if any media voices seconded the motion — not a word from Slate, for example — and some went out of their way to pooh-pooh it: Los Angeles Times blogger Patrick Goldstein pronounced the idea “not so different’’ from “the infamous 1950s Hollywood blacklist.’’
END EXCERPT
Why is it that Mel Gibson is ripped by the media for anti-Semitic statements, and Oliver Stone isnÂ’t?
By Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe EXCERPT: August 4, 2010
LATE IN July, a Hollywood honcho uncorks a blast of anti-Semitic bile, the sort of malignant stereotype about Jews one might expect from David Duke or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Is that newsworthy?
It certainly was in 2006, when Mel Gibson, arrested in Malibu for drunken driving, demanded to know whether the arresting deputy was Jewish, and then launched into an anti-Semitic rant: “[Expletive] Jews,’’ he raged. “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.’’
What followed was a Category 4 media hurricane.
<<<SNIP>>>
Pervading much of the mediaÂ’s coverage and commentary was a tone of unforgiving revulsion.
“Let’s not cut Mel Gibson even the tiniest bit of slack,’’ began Eugene Robinson’s op-ed column in The Washington Post. Talent agent Ari Emanuel’s call for Gibson to be blacklisted was widely noted: “People in the entertainment business, whether Jew or gentile, need to demonstrate that they understand how much is at stake in this by professionally shunning Mel Gibson and refusing to work with him,’’ Emanuel wrote in an open letter on the Huffington Post.
On “The View,’’ Barbara Walters announced that she wouldn’t see any more of Gibson’s movies. Slate explained “How To Boycott Mel Gibson.’’ CNN’s Brooke Anderson, co-host of “Showbiz Tonight,’’ described “a sudden explosion of outrage with some of the most influential people in Hollywood now saying they will never work with Mel Gibson again.’’ As if to confirm the point, ABC cancelled a Holocaust-themed mini-series it had been developing with Gibson.
But when, almost exactly four years later, another Hollywood bigfoot uttered an anti-Semitic rant, the reaction couldnÂ’t have been more different.
In a July 25 interview with the Times of London, filmmaker Oliver Stone complained that “Jewish domination of the media’’ focuses too much attention on the Holocaust, and prevents Americans from understanding Hitler (and Stalin) “in context’’ — a wrong he intends to right in a documentary he is making for Showtime. Stone described these media-controlling Jews as “the most powerful lobby in Washington’’ — “hard workers’’ who “stay on top of every comment,’’ and are responsible for the fact that “Israel has [expletive]-up United States foreign policy for years.’’
Like Gibson blaming Jews for the planet’s wars, Stone’s lament about Jewish control of the media is classic anti-Semitism, straight out of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’’ and Henry Ford’s “The International Jew.’’ Unlike Gibson, however, Stone gave vent to his bigotry while perfectly sober.
<<<SNIP>>>Media mogul Haim Saban did urge Showtime to cancel Stone’s documentary, and posted an online message calling on Hollywood to give Stone “a vigorous shove into the land of forced retirement.’’ But few if any media voices seconded the motion — not a word from Slate, for example — and some went out of their way to pooh-pooh it: Los Angeles Times blogger Patrick Goldstein pronounced the idea “not so different’’ from “the infamous 1950s Hollywood blacklist.’’
END EXCERPT
