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AMERICANS SUSPICIOUS OF BIG MEDIA, ADL DISTURBED By Rev. Ted Pike
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, Ben Kingsley, Kevin
Kline, Kyra Sedgwick, Sean Penn, 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.”
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