Even when not so overtly visible, the Jewish producer/writers'
dominance in the media world is still felt. In 1968, NBC featured a weekly
sit-com starring an African-American (Diahann Carroll), the first since the
1950s (Amos and Andy). The new show was created by Jewish writer/producer
Hal Kanter. The program, "Julia," is still examined by scholars today, particularly
in the way it featured Carroll as a "white Negro" living an upper-class lifestyle
familiar to very few African-Americans. "While large numbers of blacks lived
in exploding ghettos," notes Aniko Bodroghkozy, "Julia and Corey Baker [the
main character and her son] lived a luxury lifestyle impossible on a nurse's
salary [her occupation]." [BODROGHKOZY, p. 143] (This depiction of African-American
life is similar to that of the aforementioned Bill Cosby show, where the Cosby
resides in a "lavish townhouse decorated with African-American art works."
[BODROGHKOZY, p. 150]) In 1993, USA Today noted that Black actor Paul Winfield
was "not happy with the state of Black sitcoms these days." "They are mostly
Jewish jokes," he complained, "being mouthed by Black actors." [KING, L, p.
2D]
Jewish dominance caused troubles in the Black community in 1999 with a remake
of the classic Black-oriented movie, "Shaft." Director John Singleton locked
horns with Jewish producer Scott Rudin over the fact of 125 positions filled
to make the movie, only six were Black employees. [FINK, M. 8-23-99]
A front page New York Times article in June 2000 highlighted the same theme,
although the Jewish dimensions of the problem were muted. In the piece entitled
"Who Gets to Tell a Black Story?," the usual tensions between "white journalist"
(and eventual writer-film producer for HBO) David Simon and African-American
director Charles Dutton (during the shooting of "The Corner") were rendered
purely as a Black-White problem. Not surprisingly, Simon is Jewish; his father
was even a public relations director and speech writer for B'nai B'rith. When
Dutton found so few African-Americans on staff to film a story about drug
addicts in a Black ghetto, he was outraged. The Times, (owned and mostly edited
by Jews, as we shall soon see) evaded the theme of Jewish dominance and nepotism
in Hollywood, but did criticize other ethnic ethnocentrism (however minor
in Hollywood) instead, saying:
"It was always the same, Mr. Dutton said later. The business was 'full of
nepotism and cliquism.' Italians hired Italians, Asians hired Asians. 'So
why is it a problem when it's a black project? Every black project that I've
worked on, with the exception of the Spike Lee movies, you've got to go through
this every time. You've got to say, Why can't we have some more black folks
on the crew?" [SCOTT, J., 6-11, 2000, p. 22] [Note that the Italians and Asians
reference is an insert by the paper between quotes by Dutton. Did the reporter
write this? Did the editor? What, one wonders, was Dutton's direct quote on
the subject of nepotism, when his foremost nemesis on the film he was directing,
and all of Hollywood, was/is Jewish?]
In 1990 the Los Angeles Times reported that "In comments sure to trigger
controversy in the entertainment industry, members of a panel at the NAACP
convention in Los Angeles complained today that the influence of Jewish executives
over films and music distribution has held back black entertainers and producers."
[FOX, D., 6-11-90, p. B1] "If Jewish leaders can complain of black anti-Semitism,"
said LeGrand Clegg, city attorney of the city of Compton and chairman of the
Coalition Against Black Exploitation, "our leaders should certainly raise
the issue of the century-old problem of Jewish racism in Hollywood." Marla
Gibbs, a film producer and actress on the NBC series "227," added that "criminal
behavior is being imitated by our children because it is being glorified on
the screen ... The Jewish system in Hollywood was not set up for us." [FOX,
D., 6-11-90, p. B1]
In 2000, the African-American newspaper The Los Angeles Sentinel noted
the following story:
"Jerome Metcalf, a black writer and entrepreneur has filed [a lawsuit] recently
against [Jewish] CBS television producer Steven Bochco for allegedly stealing
the story idea that led to the creation of 'City of Angels' ... The material
was submitted to Bochco and CBS and according to Metcalf, both passed on the
project. However, after viewing the pilot episode of the 'City of Angels'
Metcalf said he and his wife were 'shocked and devastated to see their works,
dramatic expressions, literary expressions, ideas, treatment, scripts and
property had been stolen' ... The most interesting if not revealing truth
surrounding the lawsuit is the fact that Bochco's attorney, Edward A. Rottenberg,
contacted [Metcalf's attorney Michael] Lotta recently with a settlement offer.
Lotta deemed the settlement inadequate and turned it down ... A hypocritical
truth, would the court find Metcalf's allegations valid, is that Bochco and
the president of CBS Entertainment Leslie Moonves [also Jewish] hosted a screening
of the 'City of Angels' at the Magic Johnson Theater Complex in South Los
Angeles prior to the series debut. Metcalf said he was particularly insulted
that Moonves, in front of invited guests, many of them black community leaders,
praised Bochco as the creator of the first black medical drama for prime television."
[WILLIAMS, S., 12-27-00, p. A3]
……
"White and Jewish," Ben Burns
(originally Bernstein) even "made a career in black journalism, editing
the Chicago Defender and helping found Ebony magazine."
[GROSSMAN, p. C1] He also edited Sepia,
"a white-owned magazine for blacks." [ZALLER, p. 30] A more recent Black-based magazine is the musical
"hip-hop" The Source; by the mid-1990s it boasted a news
stand circulation larger than Rolling Stone. The Source "speaks
to young black males," noted USA Today, "in a language they
can understand. More than 60% of its readers are African-Americans. Over 80%
are under age 25." Featuring "shock covers" and articles like
the one about bulletproof vest clothing fashions to ward off "a 44 magnum
at close range," the publisher of The Source, Peter Mays, is also
Jewish. [HOROVITZ, p. 1B] In 1998, Elinor Ruth Tatum became the publisher
of her father's newspaper, the Amsterdam News, New York City's oldest
and largest African-American newspaper. Ms. Tatum's father is Black; her mother
is Jewish. [JET, p. 32]
Viacom
to Acquire BET Holdings, Inner City News,
November 3, 2000
"Viacom Inc. ... and privately held BET Holdings II, Inc.
jointly announced today that Viacom has agreed to acquire BET
for a total of $3 billion consisting of Viacom Class B Common Stock
and the assumption of debt. Robert L. Johnson, Chairman and majority owner
of BET Holdings, and founder of Black Entertainment Television,
the first and largest national cable network targeted to African Americans,
will remain Chairman and CEO, reporting to [Jewish] Viacom President
and Chief Operating Officer Mel Karmazin ... The transaction includes:
Black Entertainment Television, which reaches 62.4 million households
in the U.S.; BET on Jazz: The Cable Jazz Channel TM, the country's
only 24-hour network devoted to jazz music and jazz enthusiasts; BET International
TM, a hybrid of BET and BET on Jazz programming reaching 14 countries
around the world; and BET Books, the leading publisher of African American-themed
romance novels under the label of Arabesque Books." [The Chairman,
CEO, and chief stockholder of Viacom is Sumner M. Redstone (orginally:
Murray Rothstein)].