# Is the entertainment industry really controled by Jews **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665 "2006-05-13T18:47:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/21 "2006-05-14T15:23:05Z")
So you honestly think that: “Do blacks have natural rhythm?” “No.” is fighting ignorance? ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/22 "2006-05-14T15:25:38Z")
Many of you suggested that my post was offensive or somehow sinister. At least one here was outright hostile. (Thanks go out to those of you who simply answered the question and especially those who lent some support.) It has been pointed out that the answer to this question needs to include both a “no” and must include that the question is offensive and why. If we grant this point, I would like to point out that the answer itself can be made without being offensive. Why is it OK to offend individuals, but we must never offend groups? Certainly I have learned not to come to this board for any question remotely controversial. In one answer I was compared to people who think that the Jews > [@](#): > > kill Christian babies for their blood to make passover matzos That same response stated that the mere asking was a hate message. > [@](#): > > I reject any suggestion that it is merely PC to decry these hate messages. If I had any history at all on these boards of spreading hate messages, this might be warranted. But the bulk of my posts on this board are comprised of “Congratulations!” “Good luck!” “Sending warm thoughts your way” or some innocuous response to an innoucous question. **choie** actually did the best job of answering, with a nice list of people powerful in the industry. The question was actually prompted from a bar discussion. Someone said that Scientologist were the new Jews in Entertainment. Since I had no background in responding to any part of this statement - my only source of information was a Jewish comedian - I thought I would come here to help have my ignorance fought. This is not even remotely sinister. One poster said: > [@](#): > > 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. This does a great job to teach people to not ask anything and allows for stereotypes to quietly flounder. If you can’t ask questions, how can you learn? Without the information that \*\*choie \*\*gave me, I would not be able to easily address the Jews/Scientologist statement the next time I hear it. Sure, I could say “no, you are wrong” but I couldn’t do so from a standpoint of _knowledge_. Now I can, thanks to **choie**. I can start by stating that there are many entertainment companies owned by non-Jews. Thanks to **C K Dexter Haven** I can even give a little history on how the stereotype came to be. I’m relatively sure I won’t make the mistake of asking to have my ignorance fought again. What a silly thing for me to do, on a board which claims its goal is to fight ignorance. Here is how the answer could have been given: > [@](#): > > The short answer is no. > > Yes, there are some prominent Jews in the industry, but there are plenty of leaders in the industry who are not Jewish. > > To understand the stereotype you would have to understand that 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. > > Many anti-semitist groups have used this stereotype to help spread a message of hate. The mere asking of the question may be found offensive by some You see how all the points can be made without telling me that I am spreading a message of hate? See how it might help me do a better job of fighting ignorance when I next hear “Scientologist are the new Jews”? A thorough followup would have included **choie** ’s answer. I have looked at my original posting many times. I will concede that there may have been a better way to ask the question - but there was nothing the least bit sinister or hateful in it. A request for information should be viewed as that: A request for information. In the interests of fighting ignorance you could at least wait until said information has been used in a sinister, hateful or offensive manner instead of assuming the worst. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/23 "2006-05-14T16:03:26Z")
This seems to be a hot button topic that only Jews can discuss or joke about without risking being called anti-Jewish. I recall, but can’t find a link, that the actor/comedian Brad Garrett said in mock seriousness after winning an Emmy (I think) that it was about time a Jew like him got some recognition in show business. Garrett’s remark was funny and generated a lot of laughter in the auditorium and in my living room. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/24 "2006-05-14T16:50:47Z")
While we’re talking about wording, did it ever occur to the OP that perhaps the better way to ask the question would be, “Why is there a stereotype that Jews control the media?” This does not give the implication that there may be truth in the stereotype. As I have said many times here, the answers you get are directly proportional to the questions that you ask. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/25 "2006-05-14T18:15:45Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > 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. I think that’s part of it, and the prejudices of the Christian majority are part of it, too. For centuries Christians were skeptical about the whole banking thing - interest and usury and all that - but needed the services that banks provided. So the field was open to Jewish men, who were often banned from farming and the more respectable trades anyway. People are generally willing to be entertained by people they wouldn’t want their daughters to marry; Jewish “borscht-belt” comedians were popular in the United States long before many other anti-Jewish prejudices started to break down, just as white audiences flocked to Harlem nightclubs to hear black musicians at the same time as white families fled Harlem as black families moved in. So the early movie industry, for instance, may well have been a more welcoming place for an ambitious young Jewish man than most established corporations of the day. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/26 "2006-05-14T18:22:57Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > While we’re talking about wording, did it ever occur to the OP that perhaps the better way to ask the question would be, “Why is there a stereotype that Jews control the media?” This does not give the implication that there may be truth in the stereotype. > > As I have said many times here, the answers you get are directly proportional to the questions that you ask. I have admitted that the question could have been phrased better. Also, when I realised that offense had been given I offered a sincere apology. I note that you have not. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/27 "2006-05-14T19:28:22Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > So you honestly think that: > > “Do blacks have natural rhythm?” > > “No.” > > is fighting ignorance? On the metric of fighting ignorance I don’t think assuming a haughty pose of how naive and crypto-racist an inquiry about the validity of the stereotype is gets you much further that path. To tag the OPs sincere and polite inquiry with your “borderline hate speech” brush reinforces the stereotype that “THIS IS A FORBIDDEN SUBJECT TO DISCUSS” and reinforces real racists notions that there is something to hide. > [@](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/28 "2006-05-16T14:13:57Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > 😕 Wow. I never dreamt that a simple request for information would be considered appalling or viewed as a hate message. And you’ve been on the SDMB for FOUR YEARS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! :dubious: hh 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/29 "2006-05-16T16:35:38Z")
It may be true that most Hollywood CEOs are more diverse, most of the studios and all three TV networks were founded by Jews. I think United Artists is an exception, and some founders of Twentieth Century Pictures (which merged with Fox) were not Jewish, although William Fox (born Wilhelm Fuchs) was. CBS was purchased by William Paley, the son of Ukrainian Jews, who turned it into the entertainment conglomerate it eventually became. NBC was originally two networks, Blue and Red, and was founded by David Sarnoff. NBC was forced to spin the Blue Network off, and that became ABC. The Warner Brothers, in fact, donated the [Warner Murals](http://www.grconnect.com/murals/html/r02img0709.html) to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. As to why so many Jews started media companies, well, it’s anyone’s guess. Today, of course, most if not all of these companies have been bought, merged, spun off, or whatever into much larger corporations. But the origins are undeniably Jewish. Robin ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/30 "2006-05-16T20:34:16Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Is the entertainment industry really controled by Jews? > [@](#): > > I will concede that there may have been a better way to ask the question… Yep, probably something like this: “Are Jews really disproportionately represented in the entertainment industry?” That probably would have raised fewer hackles. When one presents a proposition that is a fave among bigots, using the preferred phraseology of bigots, one can expect doubts and even hostility about one’s motives even if they are entirely innocent. The education process can be a bit rocky, but so it goes. There’s a lot of baggage accompanying the subject. "Why do (fill in the ethnic blank) get to joke about stereotypes regarding their ethnicity and _we_ don’t? (add resentment smiley here). Because they do. It’s one of the dubious privileges of being a member of a minority group. Try not to get upset over it. I don’t get to use the n-word with impunity no matter how pure my motives might be. I can live with it. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/31 "2006-05-16T20:43:07Z")
No. Try the following experiment: Turn on the radio next Hanukkah (starts on December 16 this year) and try to find a station that’s playing any music that isn’t Hanukkah music. Now try the same thing again on Christmas, and look for non-Christmas music. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/32 "2006-05-16T21:19:15Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > \ > "Why do (fill in the ethnic blank) get to joke about stereotypes regarding their ethnicity and _we_ don’t? (add resentment smiley here). > > Because they do. It’s one of the dubious privileges of being a member of a minority group. Try not to get upset over it. I don’t get to use the n-word with impunity no matter how pure my motives might be. I can live with it. 😕 Huh? Where did it appear that I’m upset over it? Or even give a crap about it? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/33 "2006-05-16T22:19:59Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > 😕 Huh? Where did it appear that I’m upset over it? Or even give a crap about it? That particular observation was not addressed to you. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/34 "2006-05-17T00:48:55Z")
All this and no mention of David Cross’s company, Liberal Jew Run Media Productions? ---
**Author:** ![H3Knuckles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@H3Knuckles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/H3Knuckles)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/35 "2006-05-17T01:45:23Z")
> [@Anne Neville](#): > > No. Try the following experiment: > > Turn on the radio next Hanukkah (starts on December 16 this year) and try to find a station that’s playing any music that isn’t Hanukkah music. > > Now try the same thing again on Christmas, and look for non-Christmas music. Two things: One, I believe the OP was mostly thinking along the lines of TV/Movies, which, as above posters have shown, is not be true, but does have a basis in fact (Jews have and still do occupy a disproportionately large section of the business, especially in the power positions that really affect things, like Producers, though there isn’t any conscious or overt effort to “control” it). Also, the caveat that this is a touchy subject and the stereotype is often supported by anti-semites has been clearly established. Two, While your assertion about Hanukkah music is true, I know that in the Philadelphia market, which I am told is one of the more successful radio-advertising markets (as such, we have especially homogenous broadcasting; 3 classic rock stations, several rap/hip-hop, no alt.-rock, no classical, etc), we only have one station that plays round-the-clock christmas music, and only two more that play it with any real frequency. Most just play the usual playlists, and _maybe_ the DJ slips in one Christmas song (that is thematically appropriate to the station’s format) during his entire show. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665/36 "2006-05-17T01:52:19Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > NBC was originally two networks, Blue and Red, and was founded by David Sarnoff. NBC was forced to spin the Blue Network off, and that became ABC. It’s a bit more complex than that. First off, the Red and Blue Networks of NBC did not fully come into being until shortly after the creation of NBC in 1926. Secondly, the two network are both descended from predecessor networks. The Red Network is descended from the experiemental chain run by AT&T in the early and mid-1920s from WEAF, while the Blue Network is descended from the similar chain run by RCA from WJZ during the same time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-entertainment-industry-really-controled-by-jews/356665.md?page=1)