Should Haim Saban really be telling CBS to get rid of Oliver Stone?

Haim Saban isn't just mad at Oliver Stone for his controversial remarks about the Holocaust and Jewish domination of the media, which caused such a conflagration that Stone was forced to issue a speedy apology. According to this post in the Wrap, the Israeli-born media tycoon has launched a campaign to get Showtime to cancel its upcoming 10-part series, "A Secret History of America," which Stone has produced. Saban said he has already called Les Moonves, the CBS chief who oversees Showtime, demanding that he cancel the series, which is designed to provide an alternative look at U.S. history subjects rarely taught in public schools.

Saban said that WME Chairman Ari Emanuel had also "privately" called CBS to urge that the series be yanked from the Showtime schedule (though I guess now that Saban revealed that Emanuel has made the call, it isn't so "private" anymore). Saban says that Stone's apology was "transparently fake," adding that "this guy should be helped in joining Mel Gibson into the land of retirement, where he can preach his anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism in the wilderness where he belongs."

I know that some people are outraged by Stone's remarks, which included the nutty charge that America's support for Israel was the result of Jewish domination of the media. For one thing, it's pretty lame on Stone's part to ignore the fact that the U.S. is a natural ally for Israel on its own merits, since it's the only true democracy in the Middle East. On the other hand, I was surprised to discover that many of the people who left comments on my original blog post about Stone seemed convinced that the Jews actually do control both the media and the entertainment business, apparently because a lot of Jews work in media and showbiz. I hate to burst everyone's bubble, but that is transparently dumb on every level.

The most obvious: If you were putting together a list of the most powerful men in entertainment and media, you'd start with Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns 20th Century Fox and innumerable TV networks and newspapers; Brian Roberts, whose Comcast empire includes NBC/Universal and is a dominant player in cable TV; and Phil Anschutz, who controls innumerable sports teams, showbiz arenas, newspapers and Regal, the largest theater chain in the U.S. You know the punch line: None of them is Jewish. [UPDATE: I stand corrected: The Roberts family is Jewish.]

Haim Saban is a pretty wealthy and powerful guy himself, but he's a pisher compared to guys like Murdoch and Anschutz. I admire Saban's passion, but I don't agree with his trying to bully CBS into dumping Stone's series. This is a free country, so there's nothing wrong with Saban saying how distasteful he finds Stone's remarks (we're in agreement on that score). But getting a network to pull a show simply because its producer has espoused some crackpot conspiracy theories opens the door for all sorts of unsettling decisions. It's really not so different from the reasoning behind the infamous 1950s Hollywood blacklist, where hundreds of actors and filmmakers were denied work because people in powerful places didn't like their politics.

To put it in a more modern context, Mel Gibson has completed work on a new film, "The Beaver," which is in post-production at Summit Entertainment, the company behind the "Twilight" series. Should Summit simply refuse to release the movie, saying it finds Gibson's personal views and behavior repugnant? I'm sure that would make a lot of Gibson haters happy. But even though I find Gibson's antics wildly repugnant too, since he seems to hate every minority group on the planet, I think the film deserves to rise or fall on its own merits. If people loathe Gibson, they can--and should--refuse to see the movie. If it flops, the fans have spoken, but at least it was given a chance to be judged on its own merits.

I feel the same way about Stone's TV series about America's hidden history. In a free country, one of the freedoms that's worth respecting is the freedom to hear all sorts of opinions and attitudes, not just the ones we agree with.  

RECENT AND RELATED: OLIVER STONE HAS APOLOGIZED FOR HIS ANTI-SEMITIC RANT: BUT IS THE DAMAGE ALREADY DONE?

Photo: Oliver Stone, left, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in a scene from Stone's documentary "South of the Border." Credit: Jose Ibanez / Cinema Libre

 

Comments

[Lon]

Darfur! Where is Jewish outrage?
Rawanda! Where is Jewish outrage?
Serbia! Where is Jewish outrage?
Cambodia! Where is Jewish outrage?
Armenia! Where is Jewish outrage?

Oliver Stone! Oh, there it is.

[Steve Sailer]

Mr. Goldstein should read his fellow LA Times columnist Joel Stein on the facts of the situation:

Who runs Hollywood? C'mon
December 19, 2008|JOEL STEIN
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/19/opinion/oe-stein19

I have never been so upset by a poll in my life. Only 22% of Americans now believe "the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews," down from nearly 50% 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.

How deeply Jewish is Hollywood? When the studio chiefs took out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago to demand that the Screen Actors Guild settle its contract, the open letter was signed by: News Corp. President Peter Chernin (Jewish), Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey (Jewish), Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger (Jewish), Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton (surprise, Dutch Jew), Warner Bros. Chairman Barry Meyer (Jewish), CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves (so Jewish his great uncle was the first prime minister of Israel), MGM Chairman Harry Sloan (Jewish) and NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker (mega-Jewish)....

The person they were yelling at in that ad was SAG President Alan Rosenberg (take a guess). The scathing rebuttal to the ad was written by entertainment super-agent Ari Emanuel (Jew with Israeli parents) on the Huffington Post, which is owned by Arianna Huffington (not Jewish and has never worked in Hollywood.)

The Jews are so dominant, I had to scour the trades to come up with six Gentiles in high positions at entertainment companies. When I called them to talk about their incredible advancement, five of them refused to talk to me, apparently out of fear of insulting Jews. The sixth, AMC President Charlie Collier, turned out to be Jewish.

As a proud Jew, I want America to know about our accomplishment. Yes, we control Hollywood. Without us, you'd be flipping between "The 700 Club" and "Davey and Goliath" on TV all day.

[Tim]

Patrick Goldstein is liar who claims Jews do not dominate the media. All 8 major Hollywood studios are run by Jews. CBS is run by Tisch and Moonves, both Jews. NBC is run by Zucker, a Jew. ABC is controlled by Iger, a Jew. However, in support of his ridiculous statement, Goldstein claims Rupert Murdoch is not Jewish. Everybody who works in our media knows Rupert Murdoch is what is called a closet Jew. Murdoch's mother Elizabeth Greene was an Orthodox Jew.

[Steve Sailer]

Haim Saban was profiled in The New Yorker by Connie Bruckner

The Influencer
An entertainment mogul sets his sights on foreign policy

[Saban] remains keenly interested in the world of business, but he is most proud of his role as political power broker. His greatest concern, he says, is to protect Israel, by strengthening the United States-Israel relationship. At a conference last fall in Israel, Saban described his formula. His “three ways to be influential in American politics,” he said, were: make donations to political parties, establish think tanks, and control media outlets. In 2002, he contributed seven million dollars toward the cost of a new building for the Democratic National Committee—one of the largest known donations ever made to an American political party. That year, he also founded the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, in Washington, D.C.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/05/10/100510fa_fact_bruck

[Steve Sailer]

Ari Emmanuel (the original for Jeremy Piven's character on "Entourage") is the brother of Rahm Emmanuel, who is the Chief of Staff of the President of the United States.

[Linda]

Brian Roberts is Jewish but the others are not

[TLOS]

Saban was not born in Israel. He was born in Egypt, and he escaped to Israel in 1956.

[ladyofargonne]

Since Stone has succeeded in breaking the knee caps of anyone who would be interested in his Wall Street sequel, his career will pretty much implode on its own.

[Nutty?]

Saban himself talked about controlling media outlets as per this article on him. Not that anyone who has half a brain needs to read it to know it.

“I’m a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel.”

"His greatest concern, he says, is to protect Israel, by strengthening the United States-Israel relationship. At a conference last fall in Israel, Saban described his formula. His “three ways to be influential in American politics,” he said, were: make donations to political parties, establish think tanks, and control media outlets. "

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/05/10/100510fa_fact_bruck?currentPage=all

[virg]

Mr. GOLDSTEIN...you must be a disciple of Joseph Goebbels...something about repeating a lie enough times that people start to believe it. Well, you keep saying that Hollywood isn't controlled by the jews...and yet, out of all the major players in hollywood, you can name THREE Gentiles, I guess you forgot that TWO of those THREE are JEWS.

Why are you so threatened by that?