'Jewish Domination of the Media': What Will Hollywood Do About Oliver Stone?

As of this writing, probably because Oliver Stone didn’t direct “The Passion of the Christ,” it doesn’t look as though the usual entertainment media suspects have yet bothered to comment on the troubling statements Stone made about Jews and Israel during his interview with the Sunday Times:

Why such a focus on the Holocaust then? “The Jewish domination of the media,” he says. “There’s a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy for years.”

Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30m.”

In a post titled “Mel Gibson and Oliver Stone,” David Bernstein hits the nail on the head:

Gibson was an easy target for Hollywood liberals and leftists. A right-winger and a religious Catholic, Gibson was the perfect manifestation of Hollywood liberals’ stereotypes of anti-Semites.

Stone, by contrast, is a Buddhist leftist of partial Jewish descent, the kind of person the Hollywood left usually thinks of as “one of the good guys.” Stone even was clever enough to follow his anti-Semitic remark about Jewish domination of the media, noted in the context of Hitler and the Holocaust, with some pablum about the Jewish lobby, Israel, and American foreign policy. This had nothing to do with the topic at hand, but Stone’s apologists will inevitably claim that his remarks were aimed at the “Israel lobby,” and not Jews per se.

So, what will it be for Hollywood liberals? Is anti-Semitism only unacceptable when it comes from right-wing Christians, or equally bad when it comes from non-Christian leftists, who add a bit of anti-Israel window dressing?

If the comments in the Sunday Times are correct, don’t expect Oliver Stone to get the Mel Gibson treatment. Gibson’s sin against Hollywood was producing “The Passion of the Christ,” not the vile things that came out of his mouth. After all, this is the same industry that honors, continues to work with, and defends fugitive child rapist Roman Polanski.

As long as your politics are in order, no “Jewish domination of the media” comments can hurt you.