Canada's Policy on Israel is Shameful. by Izzy Asper.
National Post. June 19, 2001
[Israel Asper owns half of the National Post, and he controls Can/World, one of Canada's biggest media dynasties, with holdings throughout the world]
"Israel, after 53 years of statehood, remains the only isolated island of democracy, human rights and rule of law -- a lonely outpost of Western civilization and its values in a sea of terrorism, corruption, dictatorship and human enslavement. Countries like Canada should therefore be in the vanguard of its support, for mutual economic, military and ethical reasons."

Canadian Media Giants Announce Landmark Convergence Deal,
Canada Newswire, July 2000
"[Israel Asper's] CanWest Global Communications Corp. today announced the largest transaction in the history of the Canadian media industry. CanWest, owners of Canada's most popular national television network, Global Television, has agreed to acquire 100% of the principal metropolitan operations of the successful Hollinger newspaper chain in Canada, together with all of its Canadian Internet properties, its magazine group, most of the community publishing operations and a 50% interest in the National Post. The merged company will have complete and unparalleled national and local coverage in both electronic and print media, plus the canada.com network, a leading group of national and local Internet sites ... With the addition of the Hollinger properties and the 50% stake in the National Post, CanWest will become Canada's most comprehensive multiple platform media company, with a strong national and local profile in news, publishing, conventional and specialty television and the Internet, as well as in the production and international distribution of television entertainment programming and feature films. - CanWest will have the largest electronic and print information and news gathering capacity in Canada, with more journalists, editors and news gathering personnel than any other media operation in the country." [Note here Asper's directly censorial policies about reporting on Israel.]

TV Venture By Cosmetics Heir Raises Questions.
New York Times, April 5, 1997 [posted at Ukraine net]
"Ronald Lauder and Vadim Rabinovich could scarcely be more different. An urbane former U.S. ambassador to Austria, Lauder [once the president of the Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations] is heir to a cosmetics fortune, chairman of the board of the Museum of Modern Art and a former candidate for mayor of New York. Rabinovich, a self-made Ukrainian millionaire, spent nine years in a Soviet prison for theft and has been linked to a suspected Russian criminal figure. But the two men are joined as partners in a television venture in Ukraine that has raised eyebrows among Western diplomats and businessmen in Washington and Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, both because of Rabinovich's background and because of the apparently favored treatment the venture received from the Ukrainian government ... U.S. government officials acknowledged that embassy officials had told Lauder and other company officials about Rabinovich's conviction and his links to Grigory Loutchansky, a Russian whose company, Nordex, is suspected of having ties to criminal organizations ... Rabinovich was jailed from 1982 to 1990 for theft from the state. He said in an interview that he had been chief of a construction brigade and had sold goods to private customers. He said he had committed no real crime and had been persecuted for being Jewish."

Lauder Media Company Faces US Inquiry. New York Times, June 12, 2000
"A company owned by Ronald S. Lauder, the cosmetic heir and former New York city mayoral candidate, is under investigation over allegations that it paid at least $1 million in bribes to Ukrainian officials for a valuable television license, according to lawyers and U. S. Justice documents." [Lauder was at the time the chairman of the Presidents' Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations.]

U.S. Mogul Czech-Mated. Variety, January 22, 2001
"When an American billionaire picks a $500 million fight with a small European country, whom would you put your money on? Ronald Lauder, scion of the Estee Lauder empire and chairman of Central European Media Enterprises, will launch a personal lawsuit March 5 in London against the Czech Republic for half a billion dollars in damages ... He is alleging the Czech government colluded with his former partner, Vladimir Zelezny [also Jewish, and "one of the wealthiest men in the Czech Republic"], in the hijacking of TV Nova, the hugely successful private web launched by CME back in 1994 ... From the Czech government's point of view, it's a test of their power to shape their own media destiny in the face of multinational corporate interests ... It's widely believed that Zelezny also covertly manages Prima TV, Nova's main commercial rival."

Hasidic Brahmin Revives a Family Business,
Haaretz [Israeli newspaper], June 22, 2001
"[Ira Korff] is a direct descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, the 18th century founder of the Hasidic movement ... About 10 years ago Korff decided to continue the family tradition by succeeding his deceased grandfather as 'Grand Rabbi' ... Korff says that the worst purveyor of violence and profanity on TV is Music Television (MTV), which is owned by Viacom. But, he adds, 'I have no interest in attacking Viacom, and MTV is an ethically run business.' After all, much of his own wealth was made while serving as president and later consultant to National Amusements Inc., a large movie-theatre chain which holds the majority of shares in Viacom, the world's second-largest media company (to AOL Time Warner Inc.) Furthermore, his first wife, Shari Redstone, is the daughter of [Jewish mogul] Sumner Redstone, chairman and CEO of Viacom, and Korff's three children from that marriage will like profit from their grandfather's fortune. Forbes recently estimated Redstone's personal wealth at $14 billion."

The Short, Winding Road of Brian Epstein. [Jewish] Forward, January 12, 2001
"The timing seems right for 'The Brian Epstein Story,' a documentary playing at the Jewish Film Festival (January 18 and January 21) about the gay, Jewish record-department manager — of the Liverpool store owned by his parents — who met the Beatles and in little more than a year turned them into the most successful musical act in the world. The life of the Beatles' first manager has been familiar to Beatles fans for decades, though always as one of the sideshows to the record-shattering main attraction. With the focus reversed, some arresting tidbits emerge, such as when Paul McCartney explains his father's immediate approval of Epstein. 'He thought Jewish people were very good with money,' Mr. McCartney says. 'That was the common wisdom. He thought Brian would be very good for us.... And he was right.... If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian.'"

Comcast Defends Bid for AT&T Broadband. Toronto Star, July 9, 2001
"Comcast Corp. executives defended their $41 billion US bid for top cable TV operator AT&T Broadband on Monday as investors pushed Comcast shares down seven per cent. Comcast president Brian Roberts [who is Jewish, and whose family controls Comcast] urged AT&T shareholders to support the merger because he said it carries less risk than a plan to spin off AT&T Broadband as a separate company -- and would be a tax-free deal ... The hostile offer by Philadelphia-based Comcast, the third largest U.S. cable TV provider, would create a cable TV and high-speed Internet access giant dwarfing all others. If the deal goes through, Comcast would have 22 million cable TV subscribers -- about a third of all U.S. cable users -- and leading positions in eight of the top 10 U.S. markets."

Ivy Day May 18: Comcast's Mr. Roberts,
Almanac (University of Pennsylvania), April 23, 1996
"Penn seniors have chosen as this years's Ivy Day speaker Brian L. Roberts, a Penn alumnus who is president of hte Comcast Corporation -- the Philadelphia-based telecommunications company that within the past month bought the Philadelphia '76ers, the Flyers, and the Sprectrum ... He joined Comcast Corporations' Board of Directors in 1987 and became president in 1990. He is a board member of three cable television networks -- Turner Broadcasting System, QVC, Inc., and Viewer's Choice -- and Chairman of the National Cable Television Association ... Roberts won silver medals [in squash] at the 1981 and 1985 Maccabiah Games in Israel." [Early Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion once noted that "Maccabi is without a doubt one of the most important offshoots of the Zionist movement." Maccabi "goals and objectives" include "1. To re-inforce Jewish Zionist Education, both for the youth and adults to enable the Jews to receive and explore their roots. 2. To fight Assimilation 3. To get the Jewish youth of the Diaspora more acquainted with the Jewish heritage and tradition. 4. To foster the relationship between the Jewish communities inter-globally and with Israel."]

Roberts Gain Power with Cable Merger, Yahoo! (from Associated Press,
December 20, 2001
"Roberts Gain Family Power With Merger of Comcast-AT&T Cable Companies ... Nearly 40 years later, the Roberts family, with Brian steering Comcast Corp. is set to become a giant of the industry with a planned $45 billion takeover of AT&T's cable division, creating a company with 22.3 million cable subscribers in 41 states. The company will have more than 30 percent of the cable market. 'They are creating a giant and setting themselves up for 50 years,' analyst David Goldsmith said Thursday ... The Roberts will only have a 1 percent equity stake in the combined company. But they will control one-third of the voting stock, far more than any other single block of voting shareholders."

A Feel for a Good Story. Mothers Who Think/Salon.com, March 17, 1998
"In 1991, reporter Mark Hertsgaard, author of 'On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency,' wrote an article for Rolling Stone magazine in which he documented [Jewish 60 Minutes producer Don] Hewitt's own serious problems with impulse control. Women who worked in the "60 Minutes" offices described to Hertsgaard a sexually charged environment that had more in common with a drunken frat party than a professional newsroom. Correspondent Mike Wallace [also Jewish] was singled out for bottom slapping, lewd comments and unsnapping co-workers' bras. While today no one would hesitate to call such behavior sexual harassment, Wallace's cheerful willingness to do it in public -- even in front of a stranger -- made him seem like a good (albeit unpleasant) old boy. But the charges against Hewitt make [President Bill] Clinton's alleged behavior look like clumsy courtship. One woman described to Hertsgaard how Hewitt slammed her against a wall, pinned her there and forced his tongue down her throat."

Putin's Choice. The Nation, July 24-31, 2000
"In June [Russian President] Putin briefly jailed [Russian Jewish mogul] Vladimir Gusinsky, a leading media tycoon ... The ultimate oligarch, Boris Berezovsky [also a major Russian Jewish media mogul], continues to exercise considerable influence. The US media treated Gusinsky's arrest as a crackdown on Russia's independent media, particularly the mogul's television network, NTV. But most Moscow journalists will tell you that a truly free press was largely lost when the tycoons carved up the national broadcasting and newspaper properties several years ago and that Gusinsky's arrest was primarily Putin's first move against the financial oligarchy. Certainly, that's how the oligarchs themselves saw it ... As for the great majority of Russians who live below or near the poverty line thanks to the nineties 'reforms'--and who voted for Putin--the new President has shown little concern ... If Putin has given ordinary citizens any satisfaction, it was with Gusinsky's arrest. Indeed, I have yet to meet anyone in Moscow who doesn't believe that most Russians would welcome the arrest of all the oligarchs, particularly the majority who are Jewish. (Nearly a decade of immiseration has strengthened anti-Semitism, always a factor here.)"

An Offer Forbes Can't Refuse? Warsaw Voice [Poland], March 2, 1997
"In its Dec. 30, 1996 issue, Forbes published an extensive article called 'Godfather of the Kremlin?,' in which it charged [Boris] Berezovsky with responsibility for the 1995 killing of popular television journalist Vladimir Listev. The magazine also accused Berezovsky of having numerous mafia connections and embezzling $50 million collected by his company from thousands of Russians who purchased AVVA shares-allegedly to start producing a new passenger car ... Berezovsky took control of Russian television's main channel; he also holds a 30-percent share in the Russian-American TV6 channel, the popular weekly magazine Ogonyok and the newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta (read in influential circles). He has set up his own bank, gains profits from Aeroflot, and last year took over most of the shares of Sibneft, a leading oil company. Berezovsky played a key role in last year's presidential elections. He financed Yeltsin's election campaign, as well as General Aleksandr Lebed's ... On Oct. 29, 1996 Yeltsin signed a decree appointing Berezovsky deputy secretary of the Security Council. Soon after, it turned out that the president had broken the law, which does not permit people with dual citizenship to hold top state positions. Berezovsky had held Russian and Israeli citizenship. Following the scandal which broke when this was disclosed, Berezovsky quickly renounced his Israeli citizenship ... The opposition in the Duma has demanded that Yeltsin remove Berezovsky, who is also accused by the Russian media of having mafia connections."

The Second Edition of the Sensational book about Boris Berezovsky Is Being Prepared in the U.S., Pravda [Russia]
"The sensational book by US journalist and historian Paul Khlebnikov about [Jewish Russian mogul] Boris Berezovsky, which is coming out in Russia in the Russian language, will see its second edition in August in the USA. The new edition will contain new materials about the Russian businessman, whom Khlebnikov called in his book 'the godfather of gangster capitalism' in Russia ... Explaining the reasons for publishing the book in the USA and preparing its second edition there, Harcourt Publishing House stresses that Boris Berezovsky's personality is unique in many respects. Just call any crisis or scandal and there will be a chance of Berezovsky being in the very midst of it, whether elections machinations, organized crime, misappropriation of IMF loans, money-laundering, assassination attempts, international contraband of arms and kidnapping during the war in Chechnya, notes the publishers' prospectus of the book."

CBS-Viacom Merger Redefines Jewish Role in Media.
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California. 9-17-99
"There was a telling moment, midway through last week's press conference announcing the CBS-Viacom megamerger, when one of the unmentionables of American entertainment peeked through the veils for an instant. It came when a reporter asked CBS president Mel Karmazin why he wanted this merger. His reply: 'This is the deal I've wanted to make, I think, from the time I was bar-mitzvahed.' The reporters laughed nervously. Nobody commented afterward. Nobody would have brought it up if Karmazin hadn't. It's one of those inside jokes you don't usually tell in public. Americans consider it downright rude to talk publicly about Jewish ownership in the media. Marlon Brando mentioned it two years ago on 'Larry King Live' and nearly got lynched. Three years earlier, journalist William Cash caused an international uproar with a scathing 1994 article about Jewish influence in Hollywood in the Spectator, a British newsweekly. It's just not something you discuss in conventional society ... Now, after all the deals and buyouts, four of the five mega-media companies are run by Jews. We're back where we started, bigger than ever. Does it matter? It does if you're an anti-Semitic conspiracy nut. You'd be wrong."

The Newhouse Way. Columbia Journalism Review. January/February 2001
"Ever since [Jewish media mogul] Samuel I. Newhouse Sr. bought the Staten Island Advance in 1922, the Newhouse family has given its editors great freedom as it went about building one of the country's largest and most prosperous privately held media empires. Today that empire, Advance Publications, is home to twenty-three daily newspapers of varying size, location, and quality; Condé Nast magazines, including Vanity Fair and The New Yorker; Fairchild Publications; Parade magazine; a chain of suburban weeklies; another of business tabs; a cable television partnership with Time Warner; and a growing online operation. Last year, Advertising Age ranked Advance the tenth largest U.S. media company, with estimated 1998 revenue of nearly $4 billion, more than half coming from its newspapers. One reason Newhouse newspapers can give editors such freedom and still make money is because most are dominant in their market. In Cleveland, for instance, Advance endured a 1985 grand jury investigation into allegations that it conspired to kill the Cleveland Press, which closed in 1982, giving The Plain Dealer what amounts to a metropolitan daily newspaper monopoly. Then, in 1998, Advance tightened its grip on northern Ohio with the purchase of Sun Newspapers, a chain of twenty-three zoned weeklies in suburban Cleveland. The Newhouses are clannish and tight-lipped about the family business. Family members are scattered throughout Advance, and each paper is assigned to a Newhouse overseer who visits monthly. Samuel I. Sr., who died in 1979, turned the operation over to his sons -- Samuel I. Jr., or Si, who handles the magazines, and Donald, who takes care of the newspapers. They are now gradually bringing in the next generation."

The Last Tycoon. Los Angeles Magazine [here at findarticles.com], April 2000
"Twenty years ago, [Arnon] Milchan, an unknown Israeli tycoon, pitched his hat into the Hollywood ring. Today he runs his own mini studio within a studio on Rupert Murdoch's 20th Century Fox lot. It is the reward for being one of the town's most prolific producers of successful quality movies, more than 60 in all, including Fight Club, L.A. Confidential, Entrapment, Pretty Woman, JFK, The King of Comedy, Brazil, Natural Born Killers, Heat, The Mambo Kings and The War of the Roses ... And notwithstanding Milchan's denials, dismissals and wafflings, arms dealing has surely contributed to his fortune. (He claims that his parent company, Regency Enterprises, is valued at more than $1 billion.) As the Los Angeles Times coyly put it, "Milchan has also worked in arms consulting." Throughout the 1970s, '80s and even up until the Gulf War in 1991, Milchan was Israel's foremost weapons procurer, brokering deals for such prized superweapons as the Hawk missile and the famous Scud-foil of the Gulf War, the Patriot--"everything from nuclear triggers to rocket fuel to guidance systems," according to NBC News."

Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA And the Mob.
moldea.com [Investigative journalist Dan Moldea is the author of a number of books: this excerpt from Dark Victory was published by Viking in 1986]
"President Ronald Reagan's professional life--his acting career, his personal financial fortune, and his rise in politics--has been interwoven with and propelled by a powerful, Hollywood-based entertainment conglomerate named MCA. For nearly fifty years, Reagan has benefited both personally and financially from his association with this sixty-two-year-old company--formerly known as the Music Corporation of America--as well as from his close association with the firm's top executives: Jules Stein, Lew Wasserman, and Taft Schreiber [All these men are Jewish]. Everyone involved has greatly profited from this relationship. MCA helped to make its client, actor Ronald Reagan, a multimillionaire; and the favors that were returned by Reagan, the former president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the former governor of California, have helped to transform MCA into a billion-dollar empire and the most powerful force in the entertainment world today ... Today, MCA is still 'the Octopus,' even though it is out of the talent agency business and now the owner of the largest motion picture and television production companies in the United States, Universal Pictures and Universal-Television ... The brains behind MCA was Jules Stein, a Chicago ophthalmologist who discovered that he could make more money booking bands ... The rise of MCA and its move to Hollywood paralleled the rise of the Chicago Mafia and its infiltration of the motion picture industry. Chicago's new liaison in the motion picture industry became attorney Sidney Korshak, [also Jewish] ... Charles Gioe, a top Chicago Mafia figure, had told [Mafia agent Willie] Bioff that Korshak was 'our man . . . any message he may deliver to you is a message from us.' A close friend of Stein's and Wasserman's, Korshak quickly became one of the most powerful influences in the entertainment industry and in California politics. One of his key political connections was another former Chicagoan, Paul Ziffren [also Jewish], who at one point was California's delegate to the National Democratic Committee."

Lew Wasserman and MCA: A Star-Spangled Octopus.
New York Observer, December 7, 1998
"Mr. Wasserman was the protégé and partner of Jules Stein, who founded the original M.C.A., a talent booking agency which by the 1930’s had a control of the market that first staggered and then swiftly wiped out its rivals. Once M.C.A. had mastered the balance of kid-glove client control with iron-fist contract negotiation, its expansion into movies was inevitable. During the following decades, the corporation in its various incarnations dominated almost every aspect of the entertainment business: live music, radio, television, cinema and talent management ... M.C.A. expanded inexorably; the Saturday Evening Post, with a delightful lack of poetry, called it the 'Star-Spangled Octopus' ... The only script Mr. Wasserman ever asked to read was The Sting, the 1973 smash hit about small-time Chicago gangsters. Perhaps [Producer David] Brown would have been less surprised had he known of M.C.A.’s long record of association with the mob, from labor negotiations to alleged murder threats. Apparently, the company even lent an office to [Jewish mobster] Meyer Lansky for a secret meeting."

Lizzie Grubman. Yahoo! News [from the Washington Post], July 25, 2001
"Let us feel for Lizzie Grubman. Miss Grubman is the daughter of Allen Grubman, a very rich music biz attorney. She is 30, a college dropout, and an entertainment industry publicist ... According to press reports, club bouncer Scott Conlon asked her to move the car from a fire lane. Miss Grubman allegedly riposted: '(Expletive) you, white trash." She then allegedly drove the SUV fast, about 35 feet in reverse, striking and injuring 16 people, including Conlon ... What, Miss Grubman might say, about Jeff Zucker? Mr. Zucker is the very role model for us. He is the president of NBC Entertainment. As such, he is responsible for 'Fear Factor,' NBC's 'reality show' in which people who are desperate enough for money are induced to risk bodily harm and endure national humiliation ... Mr. Zucker mocks those who find something wrong in this. 'We're having fun, we're having a great summer,' he told reporters this week. 'Get a life.'"

Godfather of Latin Rap. Los Angeles Business Journal [at findarticles.com], February 19, 2001
"In a former IRS office building in the Rampart district of Los Angeles, an eight-month-old record label is germinating what it claims will be the next phenomenon to sweep the nation's pop culture scene. It's Latino rap, and Hit A Lick Records is positioned to be its leading force. Lending credence to that bold claim is that the founders of Hit A Lick have enticed record industry legend Jerry Heller out of retirement to lead their effort ... If Heller is convinced that Latin rap will emerge as the next big thing, it probably will be, said other music industry veterans ... Indeed, Heller is widely acknowledged as one of the key forces behind gangsta rap's crossover into the music mainstream. He co-founded Ruthless Records with rap star Eazy-E, was the manager and marketing force behind the group NWA [Niggas With Attitude] (which to date has sold in excess of 100 million records) and introduced such rap legends as Dr. Dre and Ice Cube to mainstream American audiences ... While Heller has the second-tier title of chief operating officer [of Hit a Lick], he acknowledges that the other partners 'generally run everything by me because of my experience and expertise.'"

Little Lansky and the Big Check. Rolling Stone, June 6, 2001
"[Israeli-born Lyor] Cohen has risen and fallen with the company, from hits by LL Cool J and Public Enemy to the label's short, debt-ridden stint as part of Sony Music. In these years, he has grown into perhaps the most powerful white executive in an African-American business. The history of rock & roll is, of course, riddled with pioneering white record men who built careers recording and, sometimes, exploiting black artists: Morris Levy, that burly, cigar-smoking product of the Brill Building, allegedly stealing writing credits from Frankie Lyman; Herman Lubinsky, the founder of Savoy Records in Newark, New Jersey, throwing around nickels as if they were manhole covers ... 'Lyor is probably the coolest white dude in the game,' says Irv Gotti, a black record producer who works with Jay-Z and DMX. 'He's a white Jewish guy, but I think everybody respects him like he's black. He's knows how to carry it, too. He knows how to get gangster, how to fall back, when to shut the fuck up, when to say something. That's why other white executives are scared of him. He knows how to deal with the hoods, the criminal element.'"

One Live Jew. New Times, August 10, 2000
"The owner [Joe Weinberger] of the hip-hop label Lil' Joe Records pulls up to his northwest Miami-Dade offices most mornings in a true player's ride, an aquamarine Jaguar S-2000. He wears the right accessories for his role. A diamond-crusted Rolex jangles from his right wrist. Fat gold rings glisten on both hands. He even carries a 9 mm automatic pistol tucked into a pants pocket. If this were the beginning of a movie, a deep bass track would announce his arrival."

Sexy, Sophisticated, or Smutty? Alberta Report [Canada], April 28, 1997
"A recent decision by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council suggests that if Ellen [the American lesbian-oriented TV series] were produced here, the only controversy would be whether she would be shown naked in bed with her lesbian lover ... Nudity is not yet common on Canadian sitcoms, but the diaphanously-clad models featured on such haute couture 'news' programs as CBC Newsworld's Fashion File and the syndicated Fashion Television often resemble Salome stripped to her last veil ... Two weeks ago the industry-funded CBSC (which had earlier dismissed two previous claims against Fashion Television) dismissed this complaint as well. The CBSC cited a response from series producer CITY-TV--owned by [Jewish mogul] Moses Znaimer, who also co-owns Alberta's ACCESS-TV--'We do not equate nudity with pornography. Fashion and photography to our mind are art' ... The unnamed complainant had argued in a January 1995 letter, 'These are prime time family viewing hours and it is highly inappropriate for such sexually explicit material to be shown on television.' Ron Cohen, CBSC national chairman, rejects this argument as irrelevant, contending that the specialized nature of the program appeals to adults only ... Jay Levine, Fashion Television's producer, adds that nudity is to be expected from a show covering an industry where 'being sexy is to be provocative.' He adds, 'We're doing something that obviously a lot of people don't have a problem with ... a few years ago it would have been inconceivable that producer-writer Ken Finkleman could utter 'the f-word' on his hit CBC sitcom The Newsroom.'"

U of T: Moses Mags Useful to Scholars. Toronto Sun, July 7, 1998
"The University of Toronto says the media are unfairly 'trivializing/ its Moses Znaimer collection because it includes soft-porn magazines and T-shirts .... The collection became controversial because it includes issues of Penthouse, Oui, Elite and Hustler magazines as well as MuchMusic [Znaimer's company] T-shirts. But Gayle Garlock, the university's director of development and public affairs, said the soft-porn magazines are an important part of the Znaimer story. He said the magazines were used to illustrate community standards when CITY-TV faced obscenity charges in its early days. 'Moses Znaimer is a major figure in Canadian broadcasting and we're delighted to have a collection that we think will be used by scholars for years to come,' Garlock added."

Concentrated Rock. Worcester Phoenix, March 20-27, 1998
"As the atomic bomb changed the world, so the explosive emergence of a new concert-business conglomerate threatens to transform the $1.3 billion live-music industry. A half-billion-dollar spending spree has made SFX Entertainment a superpower -- the first nationwide concert promoter. And when the mushroom cloud of its birth clears and the giant begins flexing its muscle, the shock waves may affect everyone from booking agents to artists to competing promoters and -- most important -- you. The man behind SFX Entertainment is power broker Robert Sillerman [who is Jewish], an entertainment-biz wizard who amassed a fortune's worth of radio stations, sold them off last year, and then began systematically buying a half-dozen of the country's best-run, most powerful independent concert-promotion companies. When those acquisitions were completed this month, SFX was suddenly in control of a national web of 42 major concert venues and more than 100 clubs and small theaters. Now SFX indisputably dominates the concert market ... During 20 years of acquisitions, Sillerman had amassed 71 [radio] stations, which he sold in August 1997 to the Dallas-based investment company Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. The price tag: $1.1 billion. With his coffers filled, Sillerman went on a carefully orchestrated buying spree. By the time the year was up, he'd spent $449 million on seven companies."

Death of a Tycoon. Index Online. April 1, 1998
"In what amounts to a public execution, Hungary's leading print media tycoon, Janos Fenyo (44) [who was Jewish], was shot dead in his car on 11 February, while caught at traffic lights in Budapest's evening rush hour ... Although the media have treated the murder as a gangland vendetta, in private journalists admit that the assassination was almost certainly commissioned within Hungary, either by the criminal underground or by someone in authority. At the time of his death Fenyo is reported to have been facing about 30 court cases. He had connections in all walks of life, and his friends also included a number of prominent liberals ... His media empire, VICO Rt. ... is currently the biggest print media-owner in Hungary, controlling the popular, middle-of-the-road daily Nepszava, along with three colour weeklies. It is also former owner of the television channel TV 4, and has additional interests in real estate."

Brazilian Jewry: A Concise History. JewishGen: The Home of Jewish Geneology.
"There is a TV personality in Brazil known as Silvio Santos. His real family name is Abravanel, and his family came from Salonika in Greece. Abravanel is an important Jewish Sephardic family that came from the Iberic peninsula and Italy in the 15th century. Santos is widely known because he conducted a four-hour long TV variety show on Sunday nights. It offered music and half-clad dancing women. Its objective was to sell merchandise. It did, and Mr. Abravanel now owns SBT, his own TV network encompassing 98 stations throughout the country. In addition, the Silvio Santos Group is now a conglomerate that operates a number of businesses, including a travel agency. When I told a non-Jewish Brazilian friend that I was going to mention Silvio Santos in my presentation, he objected. My reply was that Santos proves Jews aren't always purveyors of good taste or culture." [SBT is the second largest -- albeit distant second -- TV company in Brazil]

Jayme Sirotsky. Chairman of the Board of RBS. The Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce of Florida.
"Sirotsky has been a partner in Rede Brasil Sul (RBS) since 1962. He has held top management positions within the group, and in1991 was nominated Chairman of the Board. RBS is a communications giant with 18 broadcast stations, 19 radio stations, 5 daily newspapers (Zero Hora, Diário Gaúcho, Pioneiro, Diário Catarinense and Jornal de Santa Catarina), cable television systems and internet operations. RBS has 4,600 employees. In addition to his many accomplishments within RBS, Sirotsky is the former president of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and President of the Advisory Board; former president of the Brazilian Newspaper Association (ANJ) and member of the advisory council and board."

Mr. USA. Los Angeles, March 1998
"No question about it: [Barry] Diller had been a master of the Hollywood universe. At just 26, he participated in the birth of that hallowed art form, the movie-of-the-week, at ABC; by his thirties, he was running Paramount Pictures, overseeing decade-defining hits like Saturday Night Fever and Beverly Hills Cop; and in 1986, he confounded skeptics by creating a fourth network, the Fox Broadcasting Co., with such nose-thumbing shows as Married ... with Children and The Simpsons. Challenging his subordinates every bit as much as questioning the status quo, Diller earned a reputation as a hard-driving taskmaster: His compact but powerful physical presence and bullet head suggested a hair-trigger bomb--he could explode into a tirade one minute, break into a gap-toothed smile the next. One bit of Hollywood lore had him hurling a videocassette at Fox exec Stephen Chao, who commemorated the moment by leaving the resulting hole in the wall and surrounding it with a frame."

The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood.
Gay Book World, [Book Review of The Operator. Undated]
"Complex, contentious, and blessed with the perfect-pitch ability to find the next big talent, David Geffen has shaped American popular culture for the last three decades. His dazzling career has included the roles of power agent, record-industry mogul, Broadway producer, and billionaire Hollywood studio founder. From the beginning, though, Geffen's many accomplishments have been shadowed by the ruthless single-mindedness with which he has pursued fame, power, and money ... The extent of Geffen's accomplishments is extraordinary. As a manager in the 1960s, he made the deal for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to appear at Woodstock. He discovered 1970s superstars Jackson Browne and the Eagles and masterminded Bob Dylan's famed 1974 tour; Joni Mitchell, Geffen's roommate for a time, memorialized him in her song 'Free Man in Paris.' He produced Risky Business, the movie that made Tom Cruise a star, and was the moneyman behind Cats, the longest-running musical in Broadway history ... One of the most brilliant dealmakers ever to work in Hollywood, he became a billionaire shortly after selling Geffen Records in 1990, and he made movie history when he founded, with friends Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks SKG, the first new Hollywood studio in fifty-five years. And Geffen's influence has extended far beyond show business and into the worlds of Wall Street, art, real estate, and politics.Geffen's personal journey is as compelling as his business machinations. Although he knew from an early age that he was gay, he hid his true sexual urges and for years attempted to lead a heterosexual life ... Geffen learned from his earliest days in the William Morris mailroom that he could cheat and lie his way to the top, and he has ever after lived unconstrained by traditional notions of right and wrong."

Velvet Mafia, by Taki Le Maitre. [Review of The Operator, by Tom King]
New York Press, Vol. 13, Issue 10, 2001
"I’m not at all surprised to read that Hollywood is dominated by a Velvet Mafia of rich homosexuals who demand sexual favors in return for work in the movies. In fact I would have been surprised if it were the other way round. Those old Mittel-Europa Jews who ran Tinseltown in its heyday established the casting-couch practice long ago; but, as they say, at least they did it with style and with the opposite sex. The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood is the title of an upcoming book by Tom King, a respected Wall Street Journal reporter who it seems has hit pay dirt–and it’s dirt, all right–with his exposé of the unspeakable [David] Geffen. Actually it’s poetic justice. Geffen invited King to write a book about his amazing rise to the top, and allegedly named dozens of former boyfriends, many of them now famous stars. Indiscretion aside, Geffen is a lowlife sans pareil ... Geffen, of course, denies there is such a thing as a homosexual cabal, and, typically, charges anti-Semitism. According to King’s book, friends like Barry Diller, Sandy Gallin and Calvin Klein [all Jewish], among many others, keep a lower profile but apparently indulge in the sexual bacchanals that go with the territory. Alleged weekend-long orgies fueled by drugs at which Geffen and his powerful buddies run a 'meat market' selecting young men for sex are apparently described in detail in King’s opus. Here is one of Bill Clinton’s close supporters, one who had a free run of the Lincoln bedroom, and was, I believe, once even called an adviser to the Draft Dodger, pushing a gay agenda of promoting stars and directors who make movies and records sympathetic to the gay lifestyle. Geffen is a natural for the Clinton White House. Sleaze is the operative word."

Whatever Would Uncle Walt [Disney] Say? Guardian [London], April 18, 1999
"Walt Disney Corporation chairman Michael Eisner ... [has] a crisis over Spike Lee's Summer of Sam - which uses the real-life serial killings of David Berkowitz [who was of Jewish heritage], aka the Son of Sam, as a backdrop to a fictional story. But also Kevin 'Clerks' Smith's controversy-plagued [Catholic] religious satire, Dogma, was unloaded by Disney-owned Miramax (co-chairmen Harvey and Bob Weinstein) to the Weinsteins as individuals - they paid $10 million for the film. Buying it outside of their deal with Disney means that they don't have to conform to Disney strictures. Or as the noble Weinsteins put it, they spare Disney any embarrassment ... 'The ratings board said that this work [Summer of Sam] would not be released with an R rating,' said Walt Disney Studios chairman Joe Roth ... In truth, Miramax has made Disney an even bigger target than it already was. The problems with hardline Catholics started with a small British film, the Jimmy McGovern-scripted Priest, in which Linus Roache plays a gay priest. Although the film made a negligible impact among US audiences, Miramax - and by implication Disney - were branded as 'Catholic bashers'."

Owning Media as a Story in Its Own Write.
Jerusalem Post, October 7, 1999 [Book Review]
"Scandal is right at the center of the Annenberg story and is indeed a large part of the legacy that Moses Annenberg left his son Walter ... Moe Annenberg soon brushed up against the illegal gambling industry as well, eventually planting the seeds of his fortune in the rich manure of horse racing news. While virtually still a youth, Moe all but monopolized the tipsheets and wire services that were indispensable throughout the country to legal handicappers and backroom bookies alike ... Nothing short of a financial wizard - Annenberg sold all of his stock four days before the crash of 1929 - he eventually would control some 80 companies. The jewel in the crown was The Philadelphia Inquirer. Annenberg ultimately pleaded guilty to one charge of income tax evasion and had the book thrown at him - a huge fine and a three-year prison sentence. The authorities even cast doubt on his citizenship and considered trying to have him deported - this in the midst of World War II ... . [Son Walter] continued to build up The Inquirer, greatly increased the family fortunes with the launch of Seventeen, and after TV Guide became by far the best selling magazine in America, Walter and each of his seven sisters were billionaires."

Selling Off Seagram. Forward, June 23, 2000
"The passing of The Seagram Co. out of the hands of the Bronfman family this week -- the beverage and entertainment conglomerate is being sold for about $34 billion to a French firm, Vivendi -- is an occasion for reflection and nostalgia for many in the Jewish world. Acquired in 1928 by Samuel Bronfman, who was born at sea to Jews fleeing tsarist Russia for Canada, Seagram once functioned as a bootlegging operation; it is said to have produced half the liquor drunk in America during Prohibition. Today, the company, which later broadened into stakes in DuPont and Tropicana, represents a distinguished chapter in Jewish economic history, and it manufactures what, to our taste at least, are some mighty superior products. The movie and music acquisitions of Edgar Bronfman Jr., who took the company in an entirely new direction in the 1990s by buying MCA and Polygram, showed the willingness of the younger Bronfman generation to take risks and enter different ventures ... As president for the past 20 years of the World Jewish Congress, Edgar Bronfman has earned himself a place in history as a champion of Soviet Jews and as the leader who jump-started the issue of restitution of Holocaust-era property in Europe."

Edgar's Hollywood Ride. US News, March 29, 1999
"Seagram CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. recently wrapped up an informal talk on the $19 billion dynasty he heads with this insight into his success: 'You just have to be real smart,' he told a heavily pinstriped crowd in New York, 'and choose the right father.' By that measure, of course, Bronfman is a genius. A decade ago, his father, Edgar Bronfman Sr., handed him the presidency of the family-controlled liquor empire; five years later, he was named CEO. Bronfman Sr. also stood behind his son in 1995, when he cashed in nearly all of Seagram's lucrative 24.5 percent stake in DuPont to buy 80 percent of MCA/Universal ... Last year, for example, Bronfman spun off Universal's TV assets to Home Shopping Network boss Barry Diller–a move that flabbergasted the content-hungry entertainment industry. A few months later, Bronfman seemed to reverse course: He spent $10.4 billion for Polygram NV, making Universal the world's largest music company."

Air Time. Replaying the Good Old Days of Radio. Forward, March 12, 1999
"The halcyon days of radio broadcasting ... reigned from the mid-1920s until the early 1950s, when television seduced audiences away. Radio was then the dominant medium, the first to offer live entertainment in the comfort of American homes, a shared culture so powerful it became known as 'the empire of the air.' Jews played a pivotal role in creating that empire ... The story begins with the fathers of broadcasting, David Sarnoff and William Paley, competing forces who fueled radio's meteoric rise ... "I realized I couldn't compete with gentiles in a gentile industry if I were merely as good as they were,' Sarnoff once said. 'But if I were, say, twice as good, they couldn't hold me down' ... As an impresario, a corporate head who loved playing talent scout, Paley went where the talent was. And more often that not, the talent was Jewish. Radio was soon stacked with vaudeville headliners like George Burns, Eddie Cantor, Milton Berle, Danny Kaye, Fanny Brice and George Jessel; they had played the same ratty theaters in the boroughs and worked the Borscht Belt together. Other Jewish personalities, like the gossip columnist Walter Winchell, hungry as always for new opportunities, gravitated toward radio, just as they had to movies and just as they would to television in later years." [From radio roots, the three major television networks were built to power by Jewish overseers: Sarnoff at NBC, Paley at CBS, and Leonard Goldenson at ABC].

Just What Does Michael Ovitz Want? New York Times Books, June 8, 1997
"Michael Ovitz, the most powerful agent in Hollywood, who runs Creative Artists Agency, is not only fond of making deals but of making waves as well. This time, though, the latest Ovitz wave has knocked over some rivals who have stood up and vowed to wage combat ... Mr. Ovitz, who has spent the last few years expanding the reach -- and indeed the very definition -- of the agency business. Mr. Ovitz had, after all, helped broker the $7 billion sale of MCA to the Matsushita Electric Company in 1990. He also advised the Sony Corporation on its $3.5 billion purchase of Columbia Pictures Entertainment. Within recent months, Mr. Ovitz has also thrust his agency firmly onto Madison Avenue, creating a new advertising campaign for the Coca-Cola Company and teaming up with Nike to promote sportswear events. These moves impressed Mr. Ovitz's rivals and, while they wouldn't quite acknowledge it, provoked envy. Mr. Ovitz was leapfrogging over his competitors. In fact, he was no longer just an agent but a powerful fixer whose worlds reached far beyond Hollywood ... Jeff Berg, who heads C.A.A.'s major rival, International Creative Management, which represents such superstars as Eddie Murphy, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mel Gibson (while C.A.A.'s roster includes Madonna, Kevin Costner, Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, Robin Williams and Prince), raised the potential for a conflict of interest. And Jerry Katzman, the chairman of the William Morris Agency, another major agency, has also discussed the conflict-of-issue matter with lawyers."

Wenner's World. Salon.com, April 20, 1999
"[This story is about] the evolution of Jann Wenner: How the ultimate '60s rock groupie built his fantasy into a media empire ... Beyond the door to his office suite stretches the bustling Wenner Media headquarters ('almost the size of a football field,' he says with characteristic immodesty), where the young, the slender and the hip march about in platform shoes performing the mundane tasks of running Jann's empire. This is where the music went. It's strange, but if the entire cultural explosion from the 1960s could be drawn down to just one guy, it would be this compact energy ball right here -- the quintessential baby boomer, our own Peter Pan, a chubby adolescent who would never grow up. Wenner was an entrepreneur long before it was cool. And if, as the venture capitalists like to say, entrepreneurs usually have only one good idea, at least his was a doozy. Wenner was, to put it plainly, the star-fucker who always traded up -- the ultimate name-dropper who finally became a bigger name in the tabs than many of the stars he worshiped. These days he oversees three successful magazines (Rolling Stone, Us and Men's Journal), and if that doesn't provide enough fodder for Wenner-watchers, there are plenty of other angles for the wags to whisper about -- his much younger boyfriend, designer Matt Nye; [and] his many Hollywood buddies, including David Geffen, Barry Diller and Richard Gere ... [In San Francisco] Rolling Stone magazine, which would become the voice of a generation, was born."

Mike Leads the Way to Utopia By Example. The Age [Australia], March 22, 1999
"Michael Bloomberg was entirely ignored by his parents. They kept him in a leaky shed at the bottom of their garden until he was 15. He wasn't shown a mirror until he was 18. Or so you could be forgiven for assuming. When you enter the Bloomberg building in London's Finsbury Square, you see the man's name on everything: the furniture, the disposable coffee cups, the computer mats, the bottled water, the magazines. It's called cross-branding, apparently. His autobiography is, of course, called Bloomberg by Bloomberg (John Wiley, 10.95, about $A28.50). The chrome-and-glass office is open-plan and uplit, with vases of tulips everywhere, rows of television sets suspended from the ceiling and, for a dividing wall, a map of the world in frosted glass. Several large tropical fish tanks are bubbling away - designed, I am told, to create an atmosphere of calming rationality. If you examine the electric-yellow-and-blue fish closely enough, you'll find they, too, have been branded with the name Bloomberg. Probably ... Mike Bloomberg is estimated to be worth $US2 billion to $3billion ($A3 billion to $4.8billion). He has made his fortune providing 'real-time pricing, data and analysis' to the world's financial markets - in direct competition with those long-established news agencies Reuters and Dow Jones (publishers of The Wall Street Journal) ... So ubiquitous has the Bloomberg's e-mail system become that investment bankers and stockbrokers around the world no longer 'message' each other with gossip: they 'Bloomberg.'"

Zuckerman Unbound. Extra!, Jan-Feb 1993
"News consumers also have reason to be wary of [Morton] Zuckerman, who already owns U.S. News & World Report and The Atlantic, taking over another media outlet [the New York Daily News]. As an owner, he has a history of imposing his views on news content, sometimes in defiance of journalistic standards or in pursuit of personal interests. Zuckerman declined to discuss his history as a media owner with Extra! ... Zuckerman has never been shy about promoting a political line in his publications, particularly on the issue of the Middle East. After buying The Atlantic, he issued a ban on articles that, in Zuckerman's estimation, 'challenge Israel's right to exist.' Prior to his move toward neo-conservativism, he had reneged on a commitment to invest $10,000 in The Nation after taking offense at an article about Israel's military and commercial ties to South Africa (New York Times, 2/14/82) ... Under Zuckerman, U.S. News had a contract with a dubious Israeli news service called Depth, drawing criticism from the Columbia Journalism Review (5-6/88). Part of the reason Zuckerman used Depth, one U.S. News staffer told Washington Journalism Review (10/92), was so he 'could get stories that would say the kinds of things he wanted them to say' ... When Zuckerman tried to build on a piece of land near Walden Pond in Massachusetts, provoking major opposition led by singer/songwriter Don Henley, U.S. News was the only one of the three major newsweeklies that didn't do a story on the controversy (Newsweek, 4/30/90; Time, 8/27/90). Richard Lingeman of The Nation (10/28/91) pointed out the irony of the owner of The Atlantic, which first published some of H.D. Thoreau's most memorable essays, attempting to build an office complex on one of Thoreau's favorite spots." [In 2001, Zuckerman was elected to be the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, probably the most influential and prestigious position in the Jewish American community.]

Is This the Most Hated Man in Hollywood? Los Angeles, September 2001
"[Peter] Bart, the editor-in-chief of Variety, the entertainment industry's dominant newspaper, is accustomed to being in charge. Studio heads woo him; strivers kiss his ass. Everyone wants his insight and his wisdom--or prominent placement in Variety's big, glossy pages. In his weekly column, 'The Back Lot,' he alternately strokes and scolds moguls and movie stars, addressing them by their first names. When Bart telephones the powerful, he is put right through ... [He is] among the most despised and feared people in Hollywood ... There are two keys to success in Hollywood: relationships and information. Bart traffics in both. He lunches almost every day with a studio chief, a marketing executive, a top manager or talent agency head, an entertainment lawyer or lobbyist ... But there's another commonality [with 'Harry Cohn, the producer and movie-studio founder whom Bart likes to call 'the mean-spirited czar of Columbia'] that Bart does not wish to talk about. Cohn, like many of Hollywood's founding fathers, was Jewish. When I ask Bart about his own ethnicity, he turns elusive. It's peculiar, to say the least. Of all American industries, Hollywood has historically been a place where Jews have not only achieved acceptance but thrived. But following his parents' dictum, Bart keeps his ancestry a secret ... . 'He was brought up a Quaker, wasn't he?' asks Evans. It's an honest mistake. You can't spend more than an hour with Bart without hearing about his attending Friends Seminary and Swarthmore College--both Quaker institutions. 'I don't want to talk about it,' Bart says of his religious heritage, as one of his knees begins bouncing up and down. 'I resent people's militancy on these issues. Everyone wants to peg everyone else because everyone is predictable. And I'm not.' Over several months he will volunteer that he has never once dated a Jewish girl, never attended a seder, and has been inside a synagogue only once, for the bar mitzvah of then-agent Michael Ovitz's son. ('I wanted to see what one was like.') 'Listen, I got berated by the vice president in charge of business affairs at Paramount,' he says, 'because I did not take off Jewish holidays. And I was affronted. I basically told him to mind his own damned business.'" [As a consequence of revelations in this article, Bart was suspended as the editor of Variety].

Israel Theaters Plan Eastern Europe Expansion. Jerusalem Post, February 27, 2000
"IT International Theaters, a subsidiary of Israel Theaters Ltd., said yesterday it would invest $200 million on expanding its presence in Central Europe. The company, which is the largest motion picture exhibitor in Israel, said it intends to use more than half the sum to develop its activities in Poland. As part of the plan IT will open 100 to 150 new screens in 10-15 new multiplexes throughout Poland over the next three years ... Moshe Greidinger, the company's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement that the move marks another step toward pursuing IT's strategy of aggressive expansion throughout Central Europe ... [IT] is the largest operator of multiplex cinemas in Hungary. It started operating in Hungary in 1997, when it opened its first multiplex theater in a shopping and entertainment center in Budapest, which was built by Israeli entrepreneurs Eli Papouchado and Motti Zisser. IT said that it now operates over one third of its 165 screens outside of Israel. In addition to Hungary and Poland, the company intends now to focus on expanding its activities in the Czech Republic."

Hard-Charging Hank Greenspun Created Lasting Legacy and Ongoing Tradition, Las Vegas Sun [this is a puff-piece by the newspaper Greenspun founded, today edited by his son]
"In 1947 [Las Vegas Sun founder and publisher Hank] Greenspun assisted the Haganah [the early Israeli army] in its efforts to create the nation of Israel as a homeland for the survivors of the Nazi holocaust. It was a move that would have a profound impact on his life. With war on the horizon and Israel short on weapons, Greenspun bought machine guns and airplane parts in Hawaii and accompanied them through Mexico to ship to the Israeli freedom fighters who were fending off the Arab invaders. But Greenspun was caught and pleaded guilty to violating the Neutrality Act in 1950. He was fined $10,000 but received no prison time. Greenspun called it one of his proudest moments because his cause was just and he played a role in the founding of Israel, where to this day he is remembered as a hero. President John Kennedy pardoned Greenspun in 1961 ... In the 1950s, while trying to get his newspaper established, Greenspun ventured into other forms of media and started Las Vegas' first television station, which he later sold to [Howard] Hughes. Later, Greenspun brought cable television to much of the Las Vegas Valley. That company was known as Community Cable TV and later Prime Cable. Today it is Cox Communications -- by far the largest provider of cable television in Southern Nevada. Greenspun also is remembered as one of the valley's top land developers."

The Hollywood Question, Washington Post [book review of Hollywood and Anti-Semitism], September 10, 2001
"[Author] Steven Alan Carr calls [it] 'the Hollywood Question.' It's not really a question so much as a recognition that the American film industry had been founded by men such as Jesse Lasky, Marcus Loew and Carl Laemmle, and was run by men such as Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn and the Warner brothers, and that all of these men were Jewish. Carr's book examines how the perception that the Jews controlled Hollywood shaped not only the movies but also American culture in general ... But the Hollywood Question played on specific prejudices, as Carr points out. One was sexual -- the notorious 'casting couch': 'The Jew was seen as threatening Christian culture through the sexual degradation of aspiring female starlets.' Another was the ancient calumny of the Jew as usurer: The Jewish mogul was charged with an 'implacable disregard for fair business ethics' and with degrading 'the delicate art of the motion picture with his knowledge of credit and discount.' And a third was a presumed cultural inferiority: 'The Jew threatened national identity through his ability to access the American mind and appeal to its lower tastes and values.' Carr shows how Hollywood's sensitivity to these stereotypes shaped the films it made."

Making the Grade, BBC News, Decembe 13, 1998
"Lew Grade was a showbiz mogul of the old school. Larger than life and hardly ever without a cigar between his lips, he dominated the post-war entertainment business in theatre, film production and as one of the pioneers of ITV ... His nephew, Michael, the son of brother Leslie, became Chief Executive of Channel 4 ... Under Lord Grade, ATV came to dominate television from the 1950s into the 1970s."

Hollywood's Disdain for Democracy, by John W. Cones,
FIRM (Film Industry Reform Movement)
"I merely conducted an organized study that allowed me to determine that some 60 to 80 percent of these individuals who had greenlight authority over Hollywood films actually shared a common background. And, based on the literature of the industry and using specific descriptions already offered by many other Hollywood observers, that shared background could most accurately be described as politically liberal, not very religious, Jewish males of European heritage. Now, for some people, this was going too far! But for me, it was merely a logical progression leading to a factual and sociological observation. And, I've seen no study by academics or others offering persuasive evidence that the Hollywood control group could be accurately described in a significantly different manner. It seems that some of the Hollywood apologists simply can't handle the truth ... Aside from those few who have chosen to utilize the false accusation of anti- Semitism (what I call the anti-Semitic sword) in their effort to chill my free speech, others have simply taken the position that inquiries into the backgrounds of studio executives is for some reason inappropriate. On the other hand, these same Hollywood apologists readily admit that it is appropriate for the studio executives to utilize the enormous communications power of feature film to make bold, emotionally charged and sometimes outrageous or misleading statements about religion, politics, culture, ethnicity, race, regional populations, sexuality and all manner of other topics. If we accept the fundamental concept that movies, to a large extent, tend to mirror the values, interests, cultural perspectives and prejudices of their makers, then it is completely appropriate to study whether there are positive correlations between what we see on the screen and the backgrounds of those who have the power to determine what is portrayed in movies."

The FILM INDUSTY REFORM MOVEMENT's investigation into the gender and ethnicity of past Hollywood film studio executive hiearchies. The listing is not exhaustive, but it points the obvious direction: COLUMBIA (near the bottom of page), MGM, PARAMOUNT, 20TH CENTURY FOX, WARNER BROTHERS, MCA/UNIVERSAL, DISNEY

The Emperor Miramaximus, by David Carr, New York, December 3, 2001
"[Harvey] Weinstein is often compared to the moguls of old—the doughty Jew among Wasp elites—but the analogies don't do justice to his broader cultural horsepower. Neither indie hustler nor studio boss, Weinstein is a different beast altogether, a New York City behemoth with avid fingers in all corners of the pie. He and his brother run a company that released more movies than any other in the U.S. in the year 2000 and had the eighth-largest box-office receipts. To say that the barbarian is at the gate is to miss the fact that he's already behind the velvet rope and iterating access. Indie movies, once a quaint province of grad students and industry losers, became a cash machine for the Weinstein brothers. His competition credits him with nothing more than being a skanky bargain shopper backed by gobs of Disney's money. They suggest that after Disney paid $60 million for Miramax in 1993, Weinstein spent his time buying his way to the Oscar platform and getting in touch with his inner thug by screwing over far more delicate artistic sorts ... '[Weinstein] owns you guys, all of you,' bitches one West Coast film executive. 'All media is controlled out of New York, and he is the king. He has the kind of Teflon none of us can understand."

New Software Improves Internet TV,
Canadian Jewish News, September 7, 2000
"As a strictly observant Orthodox Jew, Herbert Becker does not have a television in his home. That has not stopped him, however, from developing software that allows TV to be broadcast live on the Internet. Becker, founder and CEO of BEE Multimedia, has created the tools by which networks and cable companies can reach audiences through their computers the same way they now do through their TV sets. He claims to be the first to make this technology a reality."

Conrad Black and Pals to Launch The New York Sun,
New York Observer, 12.3/01
"Conrad Black [the Gentile pro-Israel mogul married to Jewish Zionist Barbara Amiel], the owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post, finally has at least a piece of a New York newspaper. A group of investors including Mr. Black intends to spend up to $15 million to launch a new daily newspaper expected to appear sometime early next year, a source familiar with the venture told Off the Record. The paper, likely to be called The New York Sun, will be edited by former Forward editor in chief Seth Lipsky along with his protégé, Ira Stoll, the editor of Smartertimes.com ... Backing the new paper, sources said, is a group of nine or 10 investors that includes Mr. Black—chairman and chief executive of Hollinger International Inc.—as well as Michael Steinhardt, a former hedge-fund manager and prominent Democratic Party donor, who up until mid-2000 owned half of The Forward but is still the paper’s vice chairman. Since Mr. Lipsky was pushed out as editor in chief at The Forward, he and Mr. Steinhardt have maintained close contact, sources said. In the ideological battle between Mr. Lipsky and The Forward’s board of directors—Mr. Lipsky’s neoconservative leanings did not sit well with the more liberal board—Mr. Steinhardt offered to buy the other half of the Jewish weekly in order to keep Mr. Lipsky at the helm. Rebuffed by the board, Mr. Lipsky ultimately left the paper in April 2000, and Mr. Stoll, who had been managing editor, followed later that summer."

Do Jews Run Hollywood? by Ben Stein, E! Online
"At mighty Paramount, the controlling stockholder is Sumner Redstone. Head of the studio is Jon Dolgen. Head of production is Sherry Lansing--all members of the tribe. At titanic Disney, the CEO is Michael Eisner, the world's most assimilated Jew, who might as well be a Presbyterian. Deputy head is Michael Ovitz, karate champ but also a Jew. Head of the studio is Joe Roth. At newly energized ICM, the top dogs are Jeff Berg and Jim Wiatt. At still overwhelming CAA, Jack Rapke and other members of my faith predominate. At William Morris, Jon Burnham and other Jews are, by and large, in the power positions. This has always been true in Hollywood."

Vivendi OKS $10 Billion Deal to Buy Diller's USA,
Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2001
"French conglomerate Vivendi Universal has approved a $10-billion purchase of the entertainment assets of Barry Diller's USA Networks in a complex stock deal that puts the veteran entertainment mogul at the helm of one of Hollywood's hottest studios ... Diller would head a new Vivendi-controlled company that would combine its Universal Studios theme parks and movie studio with his cable networks, television production unit and film company. Vivendi, the world's second-largest media company, is betting that Diller can expand its presence in the U.S. to compete with the likes of AOL Time Warner, Walt Disney Co. and Viacom. The brilliant but combustible operator is credited with being an architect of the modern media world ... Much of Hollywood is led by Diller proteges from his days at Paramount, including longtime friend Disney Chairman Michael Eisner and [Jeffrey] Katzenberg, said Marty Kaplan, associate dean at the USC Annenberg School for Communication ... 'He always brings an enormously probing, challenging, creative environment,' said David Kissinger, president of USA Television Production Group. 'Nothing is sacred. Nothing assured. Everything is up for debate.' Said Joe Roth, who ran Twentieth Century Fox Studios under Diller, 'I didn't find him to be erratic. Explosive, yes.'"

Ivan Reitman. Biography, hollywood.com
"What Lucas and Spielberg did for fantasy adventure, [Ivan] Reitman did for comedy. He took the kind of quasi-disreputable material once geared to teens in second-string low budget fare, made it mainstream and big budget, and reaped megabucks. While one may quibble about the artistic merit of some of his product, no one can deny its impact ... As a producer and/or director, Reitman played a significant role in the film careers of several Second City (Chicago and Toronto-based) performers who first gained fame on 'Saturday Night Live'--Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi."

Has Eisner Lost the Disney Magic?, Fortune, January 7, 2002
"So it's no surprise that [Michael] Eisner's reputation, which rocketed to the sky with Disney's stock, has come crashing down lately as the company has stumbled. He has been so widely criticized for his ego, his arrogance, his outsized pay packages, his inability to keep key people, his control-freak predilections, and his weak board that it's easy to forget that only a few years ago he was lionized--no pun intended--and deservedly so. When Eisner took command at Disney in 1984, the company had lost its way; he and his team of gifted executives proceeded to dazzle even the cynics in Hollywood ... Along the way everyone made gobs of money. Disney shareholders certainly did--the stock grew by 27% a year during Eisner's first 13 years as CEO, and the company's market capitalization climbed from less than $2 billion to a peak of $90 billion in 2000. Eisner did too: He cashed in more than $750 million worth of options during the 1990s, enjoying some of the richest paydays in American corporate history. But, hey, as we said--he's a star. Then, sometime around the mid-1990s, it all started to come apart. There were the people problems: the ugly Katzenberg divorce, the Ovitz-as-president debacle, the defections of numerous top executives."

Movies Are More Than Popcorn for Karp,
Canadian Jewish News, January 7, 1999
"When Allen Karp sits down to watch a movie in his corporate screening room, he mixes business with pleasure, a luxury few can indulge. 'I enjoy my products,' he said, a serene smile creasing his face. Karp, who usually screens three to four movies a week, is chairman and chief executive officer of the Toronto-based Cineplex Odeon Corporation, Canada's largest film exhibitor. With Karp at its helm, Cineplex has been in a gung-ho expansionist mode of late ... .Within five years, he estimates, Cineplex will have about 1,000 screens in six provinces, compared to 800 in 133 locations today. 'It's a growth industry,' allowed Karp, a 57-year-old lawyer who joined the company in 1986 and who rose to his present position in May 1998, following a merger with Sony's Loews Theatres Exhibition Group. The amalgamation created Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation, which operates 2,900 screens in more than 450 locations in major North American cities and in Spain, Hungary and Turkey. As a result of the merger, Cineplex Odeon Corporation became a Canadian subsidiary of the new entity, about one-third of which is controlled by the [Jewish] Bronfman family".

Bubba Bully Steps Up, Page Six / New York Post, January 20, 2002
"One of Bill Clinton's worst enemies - and Monica Lewinsky's step-sister to boot - is getting a city-wide bully pulpit from which to lambast the former president. Diane Straus Tucker has just been named publisher of Manhattan Media's weeklies Our Town, West Side Spirit, The Westsider and (appropriately) the Chelsea Clinton News. Tucker's dad is Peter Straus, who's married to Monica's mom, Marcia Lewis. Both Tucker and her husband, Carl, have vigorously attacked Clinton in print. Diane even lost her job running the Westchester Wag supposedly because she was too pro-Monica and anti-Bill. Diane, a cousin of [New York Times owener] 'Pinch' Sulzberger, was reportedly up for a big job with the yet-to-launch daily New York Sun, but apparently decided the established community papers were a better bet."

Movie Madness (Book review), Weekly Wire, August 4, 1997
"As a youngster in Hollywood during the period covered in this novel -- the author's father and uncle, who act as wisecracking funnymen throughout Pandemonium, wrote the screenplay for [Humphrey Bogart's] Casablanca -- Leslie Epstein may have grown up amid tantrum-throwing grown-ups. But when it comes to his portrayal of Jewish dominance in the film industry, satire this savage begins to look like unworked-through self-loathing. Let's hope, then, he's got some things out of his system. I shudder to think of Epstein following Hollywood's suit by invading television and supplying us with Pandaemonium II: The Next Generation."

Baron of Philanthropy, Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, August 21, 1998
"Like most of Russia's nouveau riche, [Vladimir] Goussinsky, a 45-year-old former theatrical director, made his money quickly and mysteriously. From a modest start in 1986 with a small company specializing in metal works, he expanded his holdings to include a bank and, later, a financial-industrial group called Most. Today, his empire includes an influential television channel, a satellite television network, a radio station and a company that provides programming and finances for some 50 regional television stations throughout Russia. Goussinsky's media empire also includes a leading daily newspaper and a weekly magazine published in cooperation with Newsweek. His personal wealth is believed to have topped $1 billion ... Like many of his fellow moguls, the publicity-shy Goussinsky rarely gives interviews in Russia, and his face - which he says, with a laugh, is the most important part of his Jewishness - is not familiar to most Russians. Contributing to his shadowy image, Goussinsky rides in a dark-blue, bullet-proof Mercedes, usually accompanied by a convoy of bodyguards. When he plays tennis, as many as 15 armed guards patrol the courts. And like many members of Russia's business elite, Goussinsky is involved in politics. Experts credit much of Goussinsky's meteoric financial rise to his close ties with Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov - and when it appeared possible that Communist Party candidate Gennadi Zyuganov would defeat Yeltsin in the 1996 presidential election, Goussinsky and six other key financiers banded together to fund Yeltsin's victorious re-election campaign. But Goussinsky is more than just one of Russia's wealthiest men. As the president of the Russian Jewish Congress, he is the public figurehead of Russian Jewry and the leading Russian sponsor of Jewish communal projects."

TV Jews: How Jewish Is Too Jewish? Jewsweek, 2001
"Bob Hope once quipped, 'Hollywood is the only town where they give up matzah balls for Lent' — a line written by one of his many Jewish writers. The point being that everyone in Hollywood is Jewish, whether they were born into it or not. Hollywood has been shaped by Jewish culture — by now that’s a sociological truism — but the only place you’d know it on television is in comedy. From 'Seinfeld' to 'Mad About You' to 'Dharma and Greg' to 'The Larry Sanders Show,' Jewish humor has infiltrated popular culture. On television, Jewish humor is the Trojan horse sneaked into the living rooms of non-Jewish America to acquaint them with the fact that Jews are pretty much like them, only more so."

Caslon Analytics. Profile: Media Groups: Viacom,
caslon.com
"[Viacom's] brands include CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Infinity, Showtime, Blockbuster and Simon & Schuster. A chronology of its development is here. Viacom was originally created by CBS in 1971 to get around a FCC ruling that prohibited television networks from owning cable systems and TV stations in the same market. It then began buying cable systems around the United States. In 1978 it formed Showtime and in 1981 an all music station called Music Television. In 1987 it was acquired by Sumner Redstone's [originally Murray Rothstein] National Amusements Inc, one of the larger cinema operators (with theatres in the US, Canada, South America and the EU). Viacom then bought Paramount (a conglomerate based on one of Hollywood’s original movie studios and including the Simon & Schuster publishing group) and Blockbuster Video. In 1999 it swallowed CBS." [This site itemizes Viacom's vast corporate holdings].

Limited Media Ownership Voided,
Washington Post, February 20, 2002
"A federal appeals court yesterday nullified two long-standing government rules limiting the size of the world's largest media companies, opening the door to a new wave of mergers among cable television conglomerates and broadcast companies. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia invalidated a Federal Communications Commission regulation that had prevented one company from owning TV stations and cable franchises in the same market. The court also ruled that the FCC had acted arbitrarily in limiting the number of television stations that a single company can own ... Consumer advocates, meanwhile, worried that yesterday's rulings will allow a few huge media companies to tighten their grip on the flow of information on radio, television and the Internet. 'This is earth-shattering,' said Gene Kimmelman, co-director of the Washington office of the Consumers Union. 'The end result could be the most massive consolidation in media this nation has ever seen.'"

Nixon, Graham anti-Semitism on Tape,
Chicago Tribune, March 1, 2002
"Rev. Billy Graham openly voiced a belief that Jews control the American media, calling it a 'stranglehold' during a 1972 conversation with President Richard Nixon, according to a tape of the Oval Office meeting released Thursday by the National Archives. 'This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country's going down the drain,' the nation's best-known preacher declared as he agreed with a stream of bigoted Nixon comments about Jews and their perceived influence in American life. 'You believe that?' Nixon says after the 'stranglehold' comment. 'Yes, sir,' Graham says. 'Oh, boy,' replies Nixon. 'So do I. I can't ever say that but I believe it.' 'No, but if you get elected a second time, then we might be able to do something,' Graham replies. Later, Graham mentions that he has friends in the media who are Jewish, saying they 'swarm around me and are friendly to me.' But, he confides to Nixon, 'They don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to this country.'"

Nixon Tapes Candid About Jewish Media Dominance,
nilemedia.com, March 2, 2002
"The release of a few more of Nixon's tapes reveals that the late president believed that Jews dominated the media. Well, if an ethnic group owns the New York Times, which owns over thirty papers, including the Boston Globe. If that same group had great influence on the Washington Post, which owns NewsWeek. Again, If that same ethnic group also owns Time magazine along with CNN, The Warner Studios and AOL. If the President of the Major Jewish Organizations, owns the third largest weekly magazine, US World and News Report and the Daily News. If [E]isner owns Disney which owns ABC. Than if Nixon was wrong in 1972, he is certainly not wrong today. So why the fuss? ... Because the mass media domination by Jews, many of them avowed Yiddish supremacists, is something no one is supposed to notice. For in noticing such an obvious thing, one can be labeled an anti-Semite. So, even an American President was left to state 'I can't ever say that but I believe it.' Now, I am assuming that Stalin got to say what he believed, Pol Pot also said what was on his mind, Sharon can lie and kill and lie and kill. Even in dictatorships, at least the dictator has freedom of speech. But an American President couldn't say the obvious in 1972 and can say less today. So, you are not supposed to notice that so many 'infomedia' barons are Jewish. You are not supposed to notice the Israeli Lobby and its virtual monopoly of the State Department during the Clinton Years. You are not supposed to notice that major campaign donors are Jewish and that the Democratic party functionaries are Jewish. If you do happen to notice, you are not to question why the fourth estate is basically an ethnic industry."

Rabbi: ADL 'Defamed' Billy Graham, World Net Daily, March 8, 2002
"'Stranglehold' on Hollywood 'no lie,' says Jewish activist. A prominent American rabbi insists the Anti-Defamation League has defamed Rev. Billy Graham in its criticism of remarks the Protestant evangelist made about Jews 30 years ago in the Oval Office. Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of the activist group Toward Tradition, maintains ADL director Abraham H. Foxman's characterization of Graham as a purveyor of 'age-old classical anti-Semitic canards' is unfair. The 'canard' in question, notes Lapin, is that Jewish people are disproportionately represented among Hollywood and other media powerbrokers. In secretly recorded remarks to President Nixon that recently were released to the press, Graham spoke of a Jewish 'stranglehold' on the media. 'The unfairness of this ADL attack was highlighted by the week's news that the producers of 'A Beautiful Mind' deliberately left out any references to the genuinely anti-Semitic beliefs and comments of their protagonist, mathematician John Nash, amply documented in Sylvia Nasar's biography on which the film is based,' said Lapin, author of 'America's Real War,' a book that encourages a return to Judeo-Christian principles. Lapin pointed out that according to published reports, the film's director, Ron Howard, did this at least partly because he hoped to garner Academy Award recognition. 'Given that the Hollywood establishment indeed includes a considerably greater proportion of people of Jewish ancestry than does the American populace as a whole, Mr. Howard was concerned that the Academy would justifiably spurn a film that lionized an anti-Semite,' Lapin explained. 'To call that a 'stranglehold' may not be polite, but it is no lie, either.'"

Telecommunications: On Top at Last, Forbes, March 11, 2002
"More than 30 years after he started out at Ma Bell as a cable splicer's assistant, Ivan Seidenberg finally has discarded the 'assistant' label and spliced his way to the top of the telecom heap. He has pledged to 'invent the future,' but critics fear that he really is trying to reinvent the past by assembling another dominant telecom behemoth. Seidenberg has had a busy time of it since Bell Atlantic bought Nynex in 1997. As the former head of Nynex, Seidenberg served as second banana to Raymond Smith of Bell Atlantic. Smith retired after Bell Atlantic announced in 1998 that it would buy GTE to create Verizon Communications, but then Seidenberg had to share the chief executive officer title with GTE's Charles Lee--and it was Lee who held the chairman's title. But today's announcement that Lee will surrender his executive duties at the end of this month means that Seidenberg finally stands alone as CEO of the nation's biggest telephone company."

Dateline Winnipeg, Economist, March 15, 2002
"[Izzy Asper is] Canada's most powerful media mogul ... Mr Asper controls the country's most profitable television network and a chain of more than 100 newspapers across the country, which he bought 18 months ago from Conrad Black. But he has resisted moving the headquarters of his company, CanWest Global Communications, to Toronto, Canada's media capital. The company remains in Winnipeg, 2,100km (1,300 miles) to the west. As a result, Mr Asper has brought jobs to the city, as well as being a generous donor to local causes. But there is a more controversial aspect to Mr Asper's devotion to making Winnipeg great again. All of his family's papers, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, are now obliged to print company editorials, on national and international issues, written in Winnipeg. No subsequent deviation from the line they set is allowed in the local papers, which include the market leaders in most of Canada's big cities. This has provoked howls of protest, and not just because the papers concerned were used to substantial editorial independence before the Aspers took control. Canada is a country of several distinct regions. But ownership of its media is now highly concentrated. And nobody has as much control over what Canadians read and watch as the Aspers. Mr Asper has strong opinions. He is a former leader of the Liberal Party in Manitoba, and a friend both of Jean Chrétien, Canada's prime minister, and of Israel. Journalists fear that there is now no room for dissenting views: one columnist has been fired, another suspended and several stories killed because they expressed points of view the Aspers disagreed with."

Dems' 'Teenage Mutant' Moneyman,
New York Post, March 21, 2002
"Just call it the Teenage Mutant Ninja Democratic Headquarters. Dems wanted to keep it secret, but the moneyman behind their high-tech new headquarters - being built with soon-to-be-illegal 'soft' money - is Hollywood's Haim Saban of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' fame. Saban, who made a fortune on children's TV shows like the Turtles and the 'Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,' won't say exactly how much he coughed up, except that it's no more than $10 million. But that's a record for the unregulated soft funds that would be banned under a Democrat-sponsored bill passed yesterday in the Senate. Until now, the record was a mere $1.7 million Amway gift to Republicans. The Dems are so grateful they've invited Saban to name their new building after himself. 'I don't know if I'm going to name it after me,' he told The Post. 'They gave me that option, but I haven't decided yet.' Democratic party chief Terry McAuliffe might be startled to hear Saban praise President Bush for a 'terrific job' on terror. The Israeli-born Saban also likes Bush's Mideast policy. He disagrees with the president only on domestic issues."

Do Jews Control the Media?, by Jude Wanniski,
supplysideinvestor.com, March 6, 2002
"Memo To: Mortimer Zuckerman, publisher, New York Daily News, US News&World Report, former publisher, The Atlantic Monthly, Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. From: Jude Wanniski Re: The Rev. Billy Graham's 1972 comment. Now don't get me wrong, Mort. I'm not saying just because you own a significant slice of the American news media and that you are a prominent Jewish leader means that Rev. Billy Graham was right in 1972, when he complained to President Richard Nixon that Jews control the media. I actually do think Jews dominate the news media when it comes to issues related to Israel, and I think that fact was what Nixon had in mind when he concurred. He mentioned the dominance of Jews in the Democratic Party, those who would never vote for him, but by 1972 Jewish cohesion was already most pronounced on the Arab/Israeli front. On Billy Graham's mind was the entertainment media, where he worried that the dominance of secular Jewish owners going back to the earliest days of Hollywood led the culture toward Sodom and Gomorrah."

Indecent Exposure. The Sordid Saga of How a Nice Girl from L.A. Is Bringing Hollywood to Its Knees, by Dana Kennedy, Entertainment Weekly,
"Call it a midsummer nightmare. The last thing Columbia Pictures needed after the resounding flop of Arnold Schwarzenegger's $75 million Last Action Hero was a woman named Heidi Fleiss. But the 27-year-old alleged madam-to-the-stars has given two of the studio's chieftains-executive vice president Michael Nathanson and executive vice president of production Barry Josephson-leading roles in the ever-widening Hollywood sex scandal. Yet the publication of their names in the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere has reportedly prompted Sony CEO Peter Guber to launch an internal investigation into the rumors that Fleiss' services were charged to the studio's coffers. 'It's like sleeping death around here,' says a Columbia development executive. 'Nothing's getting done. They're mounting investigations. It's all in the accounting department, that's what they're concerned about.' How did Columbia become embroiled in the biggest controversy to hit Hollywood in years? How did high-priced prostitution-long a traditional but discreet industry perk-become the topic du jour from L.A. to London?"

Hollywood Jews and the FTC Report,
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, September 22, 2000
"Leading Jewish Hollywood executives and directors responded with a sense of shame this week to the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) report criticizing the marketing of media violence to minors. Reached by phone, they spoke with The Jewish Journal about how they struggled to reconcile their sense of social and moral responsibility with the demands of the marketplace ... Jeff Sagansky, CEO of Paxson Communications and former president of TriStar Pictures and CBS Entertainment, was outspoken in his criticism of the media for injecting children on a daily basis with what he dubbed 'a very toxic cocktail of violence and general irresponsibility.' He pointed to a score of studies over the past 20 years that link media violence with violent behavior. 'You can quibble with any single study,' Sagansky stated, 'but the net effect, if you read all these studies, is a direct correlation between violent behavior and the amount of violence the kids consume in the media' ... Even getting executives to speak about the issues as Jews proved difficult, as most of the executives reached preferred not to comment. 'One, they're a part of the system that propagates all this,' Sagansky said. 'And two, I think everyone in Hollywood is very, very afraid of government censorship. Which, by the way, they should be.'"

The Lady and the Racist Historian,
This Is London (Evening Standard), March 28, 2002
"Among London's intellectual elite there are few more glamorous than Michele Renouf, former wife of the late Sir Frank 'the Bank' Renouf, the wealthy New Zealand financier. As a former beauty queen turned model and actress, with a serious bent - she is studying for a University of London Masters degree in the psychology of religion. Lady Renouf moves easily among academics, captains of industry and media figures at parties hosted by the likes of Carole Stone, the salon queen, and at the prestigious Reform Club in Pall Mall, where she is a member ... Now, an email from Lady Renouf to her friends and fellow campaigners, has been passed to the Evening Standard. In it she encloses a study entitled Jewish Control Of The British Media. The document is a breathtaking work of anti-Semitism, maintaining that leading figures in the British media have deliberately sought powerful positions in order to further the Jewish cause. The author of the 11-page analysis is said to be Thomas Sparks. The Evening Standard has been unable to find any trace of Mr Sparks and, when asked if she could put the paper in touch with him, Lady Renouf declared she had no idea who he was. Mr Sparks's work claims to be 'an overview of the almost total Jewish control of the media in Britain at the end of 2001.'"

Mounting Evidence Links TV Viewing to Violence,
Christian Science Monitor, March 29, 2002
"For much of the past half century, the link between watching violence on television and violent behavior in everyday life has seemed an open question – embraced by one study, rejected by another, and largely left unanswered by years of congressional inquiries. That, however, is rapidly changing. To a growing number of scientists and psychiatrists, the correlation between the two is no longer a point of debate, it is an established fact. A study released today in the journal Science adds to a large body of work that suggests some sort of connection. Already, six major pediatric, psychiatric, and medical associations have said that the evidence of a link is overwhelming, citing more than 1,000 studies in the past 30 years."

Intractable Foes, Warring Narratives. While Much of the World Sees Mideast Conflict Through Palestinian Eyes, in America, Israeli View Prevails, by Eric Alterman,
MSNBC, March 28, 2002
"In most of the world, it is the Palestinian narrative of a dispossessed people that dominates. In the United States, however, the narrative that dominates is Israel’s: a democracy under constant siege. Europeans and other Palestinian partisans point to the fact that the Israel lobby in America is one of the strongest anywhere, and Jewish individuals and organizations give millions of dollars to political candidates in order to reward pro-Israel policies and punish those who support the Palestinians. Another reason, however, is the near-complete domination by pro-Israel partisans of the punditocracy discourse. Some Jewish groups in America like to harass news organizations like The Washington Post or National Public Radio for what they believe to be coverage insufficiently sympathetic to Israel’s plight. But even Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu would not be able to complain about the level of support their actions typically receive from the members of the punditocracy. For reasons of religion, politics, history and genuine conviction the punditocracy debate of the Middle East in America is dominated by people who cannot imagine criticizing Israel. The value of this legion to the Jewish state is, for better or worse, literally incalculable, particularly when push — as it inevitably does in the Middle East — comes to shove."

In U.S. Media, Palestinians Attack, Israel Retaliates,
FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), April 4, 2002
"U.S. media coverage of the conflict has been intense in recent weeks, as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) mounted a large-scale invasion of the West Bank and Palestinian militants carried out several major suicide bombings. Amnesty International (4/3/02) has condemned the targeting of civilians by both sides, voicing concern over 'flagrant human rights abuses' by the IDF, including looting, mass detentions, the targeting of medical personnel and possible extrajudicial executions. Israel has tried to exclude the press from the entire area where the abuses are occurring; the Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed alarm (4/2/02) over the apparent targeting of reporters in 'ongoing incidents in which IDF forces have opened fire on, or in the direction of, journalists attempting to cover events in the West Bank.' With thousands of lives at stake and reporters risking their own lives, it's increasingly difficult-- but perhaps more urgent than ever-- to step back and examine how U.S. media have framed the story. To this end, FAIR has surveyed how the language of 'retaliation' has been used on the nightly news shows on ABC, CBS and NBC. From the start of the Intifada in September 2000 through March 17, 2002, the three major networks' nightly news shows used some variation of the word 'retaliation' (retaliated, will retaliate, etc.) 150 times to describe attacks in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. About 79 percent of those references were to Israeli 'retaliation' against Palestinians. Only 9 percent referred to Palestinian 'retaliation' against Israelis. (Approximately 12 percent were ambiguous or referred to both sides simultaneously.) Both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict routinely present their attacks as being retaliation for previous attacks or actions. Both sides portray their struggle as essentially defensive. Whether one regards these justifications as credible explanations or self-serving rhetoric, the fact is that reporters make choices about whether to report them. The network news shows have characterized Israeli violence as 'retaliation' almost nine times more often than Palestinian violence."

Media Picks Sides in Mideast, by Norman Solomon,
Working for Change, April 8, 2002
"In times of crisis, many policymakers and journalists pay special attention to the editorializing from America's most influential papers. The spin of news coverage and the mix of individual opinion pieces usually indicate the outlooks of the media establishment, but the editorials by powerhouse newspapers convey more direct messages. With carnage a daily reality in Israel and the West Bank, some editorials have been entirely predictable. The Wall Street Journal, true to ideological form, applauds Israel's iron fist and urges the White House to stand firm behind Israeli leaders ... Typically, both the [Washington] Post and the [New York] Times fixate on the strategic efficacy of the Israeli military offensive rather than its flagrant illegality and fierce cruelty ... Most editorial writers seem determined to detour around obvious parallels with apartheid-era South Africa. Evasions and apologetics for basic elements of Israel's policies dominate so much of the U.S. media landscape that insightful comments by Brzezinski were conspicuous: 'The Israelis are becoming increasingly like the white supremacist South Africans, viewing the Palestinians as a lower form of life, not hesitating to kill a great many of them.' Parrot-like, highly selective media use of the 'terrorism' label is providing top U.S. and Israeli officials with invaluable propaganda cover."

Israel's War Is Our War, Editorial, National Post, April 8, 2002
[The National Post is one of the many news organizations owned by avid pro-Israel activist Izzy Asper]
"Israel's campaign to destroy terrorist cells and weapons labs in the West Bank has produced results: hundreds of wanted terror suspects have been seized, as have thousands of illegal weapons and truckloads of documents that prove the complicity of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority in the terrorist campaign that precipitated Israel's invasion ... Notwithstanding the poisonous anti-Israeli bigotry of the European media -- bolstered as it always has been by naive faith in Mr. Arafat's good intentions -- most Israelis believe their military campaign is every bit as justified as the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan. And they are right ... Which brings us to the Q&A with all five federal political parties published in today's Post. Their responses to questions about Israel's right to self-defence, the forms such self-defence may legitimately take, and the moral distinction between terrorism and counterterrorism betray a double-standard. Party spokespersons offer vague answers, and take cover behind UN resolutions."

How Free Is Our So-Called Press?
Toronto Star, April 26, 2002
"There are facts, and then there is the truth. When we consider media convergence in Canada — and, in particular, our biggest media conglomerate, CanWest Global Communications — it is important to understand that facts and truth are not always the same. Here's a fact: Several columns that once appeared in CanWest Global newspapers, including one by Stephen Kimber in the Halifax Daily News, have been killed, either for unspecified inaccuracies, or because they challenged corporate policy. All decisions, according to head office, have been made by local editors. Here's the truth: In a remarkable act of integrity, Daily News editor Bill Turpin resigned this week, but not before saying that he killed Kimber's column after being advised by Murdoch Davis, his CanWest boss in Winnipeg. 'I and other editors had been urged repeatedly by Mr. Davis to get his advice on any prospective commentary that might run contrary to Southam Publications' rapidly changing editorial policies,' Turpin said in an unpublished letter. 'To my profound regret, I did so in Mr. Kimber's case. Mr. Davis told me in colourful terms that publishing the piece would be a career disaster.' Issues of editorial control raised by his letter, and the sheer size of CanWest Global's influence over news, have raised legitimate questions about how free our so-called free press is. CanWest Global owns 27 daily newspapers. That's a fact. They include the National Post and major newspapers in Ottawa and six of 10 provincial capitals. They distribute 11.4 million copies every week. This is dwarfed by Global's television network, which beams itself to 94 per cent of English-speaking Canada (Source: CanWest Global). The company's radio, film, Internet and entertainment holdings give it unprecedented control over the information Canadians use every day ... CanWest's corporate motto is: "If you can watch it, read it, hear it, or download it, we want to be the source." Fair enough, but its owners want Ottawa to help by giving them more tax money, and emasculating the CBC. These are important public policy issues, but can we count on CanWest to allow a full debate of the pros and cons in its newspapers? It already orders its 14 largest papers to print identical, weekly editorials on national issues, and forbids any dissent. We are therefore right to ask: Do we want our newspapers edited by people who are afraid to publish strong opinions until they are cleared with head office? Do we want what Doug Creighton, founder of the Toronto Sun, called Wizard of Oz journalism — with no brains, no heart and no courage? Concerns about the effects of convergence are growing. Something must be done."

The AOL Time Warner Black Hole,
FoxNews, April 29, 2002
" The verdict is finally in: The AOL Time Warner (AOL) merger should not have happened. That's the message from last week's latest balance sheet convulsion to shake what was once known reverentially in certain parts as the House Of Luce. Specifically, the balance sheet net worth of the largest media conglomerate on earth has now been slashed by more than one-third in a biblical-sized tidal wave of losses, even as the man who presided over the drowning - Mr. Gerald M. Levin - heads for the exit door, a $1 million per year 'consulting' contract stuffed in his briefcase. His new mission, after trading the crown jewel of the American media for $95 billion worth of dot-com hype? To reconnect with his feminine side and 'write poetry' as he eases into early retirement. What a colossal disgrace, topped only by the pathetic efforts of the company's brass to spin the fiasco - which amounts to the largest balance sheet evisceration in American corporate history - as nothing more than a kind of accounting hiccup that affects nothing. No, I don't think so ... Finally last week, after more than fifteen months of bloodletting that has knocked 60 percent off the price of the combined companies' stock, the company announced that it was writing off $54 billion of its net worth as being completely unsaleable and without any value whatsoever. In fact, there's more of this certainly to come because the slide in the company's stock price since the merger has wiped out more than $160 billion of the company's market value, whereas last week's write-off has only thrown $54 billion of it into the trash bin. In other words, perhaps as much as $100 billion more could disappear before the carnage is complete."

Top Executive at ABC Television Leaves After One Year in the Job,
New York Times, May 1, 2002
"After what numerous executives described as a long period of uncertainty and even dysfunction at the highest management level of ABC, the network announced yesterday that Steven M. Bornstein was stepping down as president of ABC Television, the top executive position at the company. The move is the second change in senior management in the last several months at ABC, which is suffering through one of the worst television seasons in the company's history. Stu Bloomberg, a longtime creative executive who had been the co-chairman of ABC Entertainment, was ousted in January."

US, European Press Stand Divided Over Israel, Palestine,
Boston Globe, May 1, 2002
"The refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin, which was the site of furious fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, is now the focus of an equally intense battle for world opinion. It is also a classic example of the profound differences between US and European media coverage of the conflict in the Middle East. Much of the press in this country, while taking note of the physical destruction after the combat, was cautious in its treatment of Palestinian claims of a massacre. The Washington Post reported that interviews turned up ''no evidence' of 'large-scale massacres or executions by Israeli troops.' The New York Times said a visit to the refugee camp showed 'more destruction than death.' And Monday, the Globe reported that allegations of a massacre appeared to be 'crumbling under the weight of eyewitness accounts.' Across the Atlantic, the tone has been decidedly different. The Economist, a British magazine, said 'evidence of the Israeli army's absolute negligence in trying to protect civilian life is everywhere.' London's Independent made reference to 'grisly evidence of a war crime' and led one story by noting that 'the world finally got to see what Israel has done in the Jenin refugee camp yesterday.' The Guardian, also based in London, produced an April 17 story asserting that 'the outcry in the European press over the killings of civilians in Jenin has not been echoed in US newspapers.' These variations in style and substance reflect divergent views not only between the European and American press but between the two populations. A recent Pew Research Center poll indicates that by a 3-to-1 margin, Americans have more sympathy for Israel than for the Palestinians. But the Palestinians enjoy significantly more support than Israel in Italy, France, and Britain, the Pew researchers found, and marginally more in Germany, a nation still riddled with guilt over the Holocaust. It is a reality that partisans on both sides acknowledge."

Bill: TV or Not TV?
New York Daily News, May 3, 2002
"Former President Bill Clinton has rejected a pitch from NBC to front his own daytime talk show — but he isn't hitting the mute button on Bubba TV just yet. He sat through a presentation by top executives from the peacock network in California this week, and a spokeswoman said he'll listen to other television gabfest proposals ... NBC had no comment. But sources said NBC President Andrew Lack and NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker [both Jewish] were in the meeting. Ed Wilson, head of NBC's program syndication arm, is said to have also been involved in the discussions. One source at the network described the meeting as informal. 'If this was to happen, it would be happening out of syndication,' an executive said. 'It wouldn't be out of NBC News.'"

[Pridevision: Canada's Gay TV Network]
pridevision.com
"John Levy - Chairman & CEO. Armed with an LL.B. degree from the University of Toronto (and a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 1978), John Levy has been a player on the Canadian broadcasting scene for years. Until September, 1999, he was the President and CEO of Cableworks, one of the first cable systems in Canada to launch high-speed internet access over cable and considered a leader in the deployment of digital technology. Mr. Levy successfully spearheaded new CRTC license applications for both The Score, headline sports network, and PrideVision TV. He is the majority shareholder in Headline Media Group Inc., the company that owns PrideVision TV."