Posted
Saturday, March 16, 2002 Do Jews Control the
Media? Memo from: Jude
Wanniski 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 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. If you
read the tape transcript, you will find both men agreeing
that "the best Jews" were in Israel, because the locals were
"irreligious." After I presented my commentary yesterday on why Jews
have been politically inept, quoting Irving Kristol
who preferred the word "stupid," I got some angry e-mails
from Christians who insisted Billy Graham was not
anti-Semitic, as I had written. They calmed down when I
answered that I had written "anti-Semitic" in quotation
marks, as I certainly do not believe either Nixon or Graham
had complaints about Jewish people beyond the "political"
realm. In my mind, anti-Semitism requires one to want to do
harm to Jews in some way -- at a low level barring Jews from
country club membership, for example, a practice that still
exists in some clubs at least "unofficially." When it comes to Israel, though, the Jewish political
establishment that you officially represent will not
tolerate a breaking of the ranks. There may be fierce debate
inside Israel on government policies toward the
Arab/Palestinian world, but once decisions are made, there
is no further debate permitted here. Think of it, Mort. If you had agreed to meet with Min.
Farrakhan when I begged you to, three years ago I think,
perhaps you would have been able to persuade your colleagues
to shift gears enough to give the Arab/Islamic world some
hope on Middle East matters. And 9-11
might not have happened. Remember I told you that
Farrakhan had informed me that he would meet with any
journalists I recommended, and said he would come to New
York City to meet with the editorial board of the Jewish
weekly Forward, but that its then-editor Seth
Lipsky said he could not have that happen. When I told
you that Seth was too small, but you were big, you replied
"I'm not that big," and you reminded me that your name began
with a "Z" and I should come back when I went through the
rest of the alphabet of Jewish political leaders. How sad it is. Can't you see that if one of the most
powerful and influential media figures in both the news
media and the Jewish political establishment is afraid to
meet with Min. Farrakhan -- because the word is to avoid
doing so at all costs -- how do lesser men and women in the
press corps break ranks, whether Jewish or not? My old boss
at The Wall Street Journal told me at the time I
discussed Min. Farrakhan with you that he cleared all issues
involving Jewish matters with Seth Lipsky of the Forward. I
offered to have Min. Farrakhan meet with the editorial board
of The New York Times, or to have him pen an op-ed,
but there was no interest. Do Jews control the media? You bet they do on this issue.
Min. Farrakhan tells of a dinner meeting with a group of
influential rabbis in Chicago a few years back, a dinner
arranged by Irv Kupcinet, the columnist. He says the
dinner went beautifully and the rabbis suggested they
adjourn to another room for coffee, to come down to
business. He said one rabbi took out a sheet of paper with a list
of demands, telling him that if he complied with them, they
would assure him his problems with the news media would go
away. One of the demands was that he apologize for
everything he had said in the past that distressed them,
another that he say nothing in the future that would
distress them. Farrakhan told me he said he would apologize
for anything he said that was not true, if they would wish
to discuss it with him man-to-man, but that he could not
grant blanket apologies as if he were a child and thus could
not comply. He said he told the rabbis that he could also take a list
of demands from his pocket, if they were willing to sit and
listen. He said he acknowledged the Jewish community had
done more for the black man over the past century than any
other ethnic or religious group. It was always in a
parent/child relationship, and it was time for equal footing
at an adult level. No deal. No deal, Mort, because I believe the fear of losing
Israel to the Arabs is so great that your group will not
take any risks of the only kind that might actually produce
peace in the Holy Land. And you are not big enough, you say.
Your name starts with the end of the alphabet. Too
bad.
©
Focal Point
2002 
Twice
in 1998 I wrote warnings in this space that unless we
tried to find the source of the hatred against the United
States in the Muslim world, terrorists would return and
bring down the Twin Towers.
In
order to ensure this support of Israel, the Jewish
Establishment has bought both political parties with
campaign funds and with its Enforcer, the Anti-Defamation
League. There is not a single member of the government,
either executive or legislative branches, who has the nerve
to speak out for the Palestinian point of view when it
conflicts with the point of view of the presidents of your
organization. It just does not happen. Why do you think I
spend so much time and energy trying to get you to sit down
with Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam? He is
the closest thing the Muslim world has to an American leader
who is capable of representing their point of view. If they
do not have such a person, they can yap all they want from
afar, but eventually they wind up committing suicide while
taking the lives of others to get our attention.
Twice
in 1998 I wrote warnings in this space that unless we
tried to find the source of the hatred against the United
States in the Muslim world, terrorists would return and
bring down the Twin Towers. There was no interest because
no one in the political universe could stand the wrath of
[Abraham] Foxman and the ADL, the Enforcer
of the organization over which you now preside.
ADL Index
The Anti-Defamation League:
Censors of the Universe
Nixon,
Billy Graham make irreverent comments about Jews on
tapesTHIS website prints the
above article without change, and without vouching for
the accuracy of any of the statements contained therein,
as part of our policy of exposing the activities of the
ADL.
write to David Irving