John Stewart from the Daily Show will often make jokes about the entertainment industry being run by Jews. Is this true or is he just playing to a sterotype?
Does the mess of a film industry really seem like it’s “in control” by anybody?
That said, yeah, the film industry’s founders and heavy hitters were/are Jewish. This claim is neither sinister nor seriously disputed. Stewart, being both Jewish and a fairly major player in entertainment, takes some pride in this even if it plays into old antisemitic stereotypes.
I didn’t mean to imply that there was anything sinister in the claim. I was just interested in the validity.
Well… the “founders and heavy hitters” may have been largely Jewish, but that’s not where things are today. Stewart’s comments are a joke, reflecting the stereotype that the Jews control world finances, television, film, congress, whatever.
The book that Krokodil linked to suggests that the reason Jews were so heavily involved in the early days of Hollywood is theatre, vaudeville, and early movies weren’t “respectable.” There was a great wave of Jewish immigration from the 1890s through WWI, but most jobs were closed to Jews. The entertainment industry, however, was not something that “nice” people got into, so it was OK for Jews to go on stage or manage theatres or start up film companies.
According to The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion, its not just the film industry. Its everything. YMMV.
But the claim is made in all seriousness by any number of anti-Semitic groups and individual haters. To ask about its validity in any way, to give it any credibility rather than understanding the hate that is behind the assertion, implies that America and Americans have learned nothing about stereotyping. You can’t ask the question in today’s world without appearing at least sinister.
Really? Without other information, I’d tend to give the asker the benefit of the doubt and assume he was naïve.
Wait, I thought the Jews controlled the banks, and the corporations controlled entertainment.
Was there a shuffle and I missed it? It’s so hard to keep up.
Most important part first: it’s “Jon,” fer cryin’ out loud. 
Second, you said it yourself: he jokes. The man’s a comedian, remember? Of course he plays to stereotype. No single group “controls” the entertainment industry. What, you think there’s some Jewish Hollywood equivalent of the Trilateral Commission or Council on Foreign Relations sitting in some bunker on Sunset Boulevard? That they all make collective decisions to make Jessica Simpson a star and greenlight Basic Instinct II?
Old Hollywood did have many, many Jewish folks as its power players. Right now, what controls the entertainment industry is money, no matter what religion its owner is. A few corporate conglomerates run the vast majority of media outlets, the top five being:
Time Warner (headed by Richard Parsons, Lutheran), which controls way too many media entities to list, but including Warner Bros., CNN, HBO, Time Inc. magazines, Netscape, Amazon, and on and on and on. Go here for a better taste.
News Corporation (headed by Rupert Murdoch, Presbyterian), which controls the FOX TV and film networks, HarperCollins publishers, the New York Post, the magazines Weekly Standard and TV Guide among many others, DirecTV and dozens of TV stations.
General Electric (headed by Jeffrey Immelt, possibly Presbyterian), which owns the networks NBC, MSNBC, USA, CNBC, Spanish-language Telemundo, Bravo, Universal Pictures, and many TV stations among others.
Disney (headed by Robert Iger, possibly Jewish), which owns … well, Disney, obviously, but also ABC, ESPN, eighty-trillion radio stations, US Weekly magazine, and much more.
CBS/Viacom (headed by Sumner Redstone, Jewish), which encompasses CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Simon & Schuster and nearly 200 radio stations).
Companies are controlled by their boards, of course. But looking at the people heading up these corporations, we see that the only real link between them is gender and wealth. (Not even color – Parsons is black.)
Just my 2 shekels. ;j ← (how can people really wanna get rid of this little guy?)
I sure didn’t mean to sound accusatory. I started a thread similar to this one several years ago, about identifiably Jewish villains in movies, and many people’s heckles were raised by the question.
It’s a valid thing to ask, but in the modern climate, one is expected to demonstrate an absence of malice or mischief in the inquiry of such a potentially loaded topic.
We react differently. I cannot believe any American adult can be that naive. Perhaps the OP is neither American nor an adult, in which case I am less appalled.
But what if the question were, do the Jews kill Christian babies for their blood to make passover matzos or is this a stereotype? You can find Jewish comedians making reference to this as well (though admittedly not as often). The Hollywood stereotype is just a more sophisticated version of this slander. It is the equivalent of renaming Creationism as Intelligent Design. There is no underlying difference, merely a slyer version that doesn’t immediate trigger the vomiting reflex.
I reject any suggestion that it is merely PC to decry these hate messages. The proper answer to the OP’s question is not a bare “no” but an explanation of what the question itself represents.
I can, easily. In fact, I think it’s rather naïve of you to not realize how common even quite extreme ignorance can be in the U.S. and other western nations.
Wow. I never dreamt that a simple request for information would be considered appalling or viewed as a hate message. I am more than a little puzzled as I am sure I have shown no history of hateful remarks.
If I have offended Jewish people with my query I offer a sincere apology.
For the record. I am American, I am an adult. I am not Jewish and I meant no offense.
Man, lay off the OP. He’s got a point. How could someone watch the credits of a contemporary movie and not notice all the Jewish sounding names? It sometimes seems like every movie in the theater or otherwise has at the very least one Jewish name in the producing credits and many more in the other credits.
I am Jewish and I’ve never had any problem with the idea that Jews are very prominent in Hollywood. The thing to remember is that while individual Jews may be in positions of power in the entertainment industry, they are not unified in some Jewish way, nor are they working for the cause of some greater Jewish force. It just happens to be that they are Jewish. Jews made it big in show business, that’s just how it is. From the early days all the way until now.
Chill. I’d suggest reading some biographies of Samuel Goldwyn if you want an idea of the role Jews played in early Hollywood. If it seemed furtive at times, it’s due in large part them being low-key (the outgoing loudmouthed ill-tempered Goldwyn being a notable exception) because periodically some clown would try to gain political leverage by making speeches about perceived Hollywood decadence and Jew- (i.e. Communist-)controlled studios.
During the Production Code days of the mid '30s and '40s, it went so far as taking out any obviously Jewish characters (seldom were there any non-obvious ones), references to Jews, or even names that might sound Jewish.
Well, then there is the question of why no major studio picked up Passion of the Christ? ;j
Yes, there are a large number of Jewish folks in entertainment and banking disproportionate to their percent of the population. Probably because our families tend to value education. That does not necessarily mean “The Jews” control those industries like there’s some World Council of Zion that we all report to.
You may also notice that a dispropotionately large number of Asians running dry cleaners, Greeks running diners and blacks playing professional athletics.
Sometimes stereotypes are there for a reason.
Because it was going to be in Aramaic with subtitles, and it was going to be extremely violent, and it was going to tell the gospel story literally (potentially accusing the Jews), all of which would either drive audiences away or be offensive. The major studios (as a rule) do not take large risks. And the major studios do not want to offend any significant minorty.
I’d like to suggest that the OP’s question is sort of on par with “Do blacks really have natural rhythm?” The question itself is worth answering, if only because many people still believe the stereotype. But it is also important that any answer include the fact that this is not only false but offensive for historical reasons. Black comedians joke about it, but it but would be tasteless coming from a non-black.
Well…I’m not so sure about that. Beyond the somewhat precious notion that “only certain people are allowed to joke about/make observations about these things”, if we start tacking on “you really shouldn’t go there” admonitions after answering a question, I think it weakens the integrity of the answer standing by itself as a refutation.