AMERICANS SUSPICIOUS OF BIG MEDIA, ADL DISTURBED
By Rev. Ted Pike
30 Dec 08
Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, is troubled. A recent
ADL poll found that 61 percent of Americans believe their religious
values are
“under attack” by media. Fifty-nine percent believe those who run
TV networks and major movie studios don’t share their religious or moral
values. Forty-three percent believe there is actually “an organized campaign
by Hollywood and the national media to weaken the influence of religious values
in this country.” In addition, nearly 40 percent favor some kind of censorship
of morally objectionable material in public places like libraries.
To Foxman, this is heresy. He says these erroneous beliefs come
from people who “want to incorporate more religion in American
life,” a Christian/conservative agenda ADL vehemently opposes.
Foxman says ADL must calm these disturbing levels of suspicion.
“It is troubling that so many Americans feel as if the output
of Hollywood is part of an organized campaign to undermine the religious
values in this country,” he says. “It shows that in this
age of pervasive media and the widening availability of the internet,
many Americans still maintain a very parochial view towards the information
age, and even believe in censorship to protect morality.”
But ADL’s poll also held good news for Foxman. In 1964, a
similar ADL poll revealed nearly half of Americans believed Jews
controlled Hollywood and big media. Today, only 22 percent believe
this. This proves ADL has been powerfully persuasive in dispelling
the “anti-Semitic canard” that Jews control media.
At least one person is not convinced.
In his recent LA Times column, “How
Jewish is Hollywood,” Joel Stein objects: “I
have never been so upset by a poll in my life. Only 22 percent
of Americans now believe ‘the movie and television industries
are pretty much run by Jews,’ down from nearly 50 percent
in 1964. The Anti-Defamation League, which released the poll results
last month, sees in these numbers a victory against stereotyping.
Actually, it just shows how dumb America has gotten: Jews totally
run Hollywood.”
Stein lists Jewish media heads including: News Corp. president Peter
Chernin; Paramount Pictures chairman Brad Grey; Walt Disney Co. chief
exec Robert Igor; Sony Pictures chairman Michael Lyndon; Warner Bros.
chairman Barry Meyer; CBS Corp. chief exec Leslie Moonves; MGM chairman
Harry Sloan; and NBC-Universal chief exec Jeff Zucker.
(Some of the most famous stars in front of the camera are
also Jewish, as a recent
CBS2Chicago slideshow demonstrates. Along with those more
commonly known such as Billy Crystal and Steven Spielberg, famous
Hollywood Jews include Harrison Ford, Adam Sandler, Michael Douglas,
Sarah Michelle Gellar, the Gyllenhaals, Kevin Kline,
Kyra Sedgwick and many others.)
Stein writes, “The Jews are so dominant I had to scour the
trades to come up with six Gentiles in high positions of entertainment
companies. When I called them to talk about their incredible achievement,
five of them refused to talk to me, apparently out of fear of insulting
Jews. The sixth, AMC president Charles Collier, turned out to be
Jewish.”
To find out why ADL distorts reality about Jewish media control,
Stein called Foxman. The ADL head “said the number of people
who think Jews run Hollywood is still too high.” Foxman told
Stein, “That’s a very dangerous phrase, ‘Jews control
Hollywood.’”
Curiously, Joel Stein thinks more Americans, not fewer, should know
Jews dominate the flow of news, entertainment, and information in
our society. If people knew the full Jewish contribution to America,
he suggests, Jews would be praised and kept in control.
Stein concludes: “I don’t care if Americans think we’re
running the news media, Hollywood, Wall Street, or the government.
I just care that we get to keep running them.”
Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative
watchdog organization.
TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Rev. Ted Pike on this
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National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas,
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