On Rick Sanchez, Jon Stewart, and Why We All Lose Playing the Oppression Olympics

Open Thread: Cornel West on Stephen Colbert – Respect or Mockery?

One of the more distressing points about the type of comedy that Colbert and Stewart perform is that the boundaries blur so often between what they are lampooning and what they are reinforcing. I remember watching an episode of the Daily Show where Stewart made a crack about his writer’s room being white and male. The joke played on the realities of the television industry. However, what is always interesting to me is how often Stewart will discuss things that he has the power to change. I’m sure Jon Stewart can’t wave a magic wand and fix all the diversity issues in the media at large – but I’m sure he can make a difference on his own show.

But here’s where things get sticky:

PD: But listen he picks on Jews all the time, he’s a Jew. He focuses on them and I think he overcompensates to some extent.

[...]

RS: I think Jon’s show is essentially prejudicial. I think that Jon’s show is…

PD: Against who?

RS: Against anybody who doesn’t agree to his point of view, which is very much a white liberal establishment point of view. He cant relate to a guy like me. He can’t relate to a guy who’s dad worked all his life. He can’t relate to somebody who grew up poor. [...]

Here is where the Wrap transcript ends, but the quote that’s been all over the news is this one:

Very powerless people… [snickers] He’s such a minority, I mean, you know [sarcastically]… Please, what are you kidding? … I’m telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they — the people in this country who are Jewish — are an oppressed minority? Yeah. [sarcastically]

Now, there’s an interesting assumption put forth here: that class privilege negates racial or ethnic struggle. Which it does not. And it’s one of those tropes used as an internal division, which I’ve seen employed against both Jews and Asians – the fact that many members of the group have found some measure of wealth and success means that they no longer face oppression.

The way in which Sanchez’s comment can be read is two fold: he could be talking about white people like Stewart, or he could be talking about Jewish people like Stewart.

The way the comment is interpreted has generally been toward the Jewish leaning – a play upon an old stereotype that Jewish people run the media.

Back in 1996, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) debunked the myth in a report:

All such diatribe plays up your Eisners and your Sulzbergers–and plays down many other names: Jack Welch and Michael H. Jordan, CEOs, respectively, of GE (NBC) and Westinghouse (CBS); Rupert Murdoch (who owns 20th Century Fox); John Malone, CEO of TCI, the nation’s largest cable company; maverick globalist Ted Turner; and many more. Also tuned out are such goyische giants as Hearst Communications, Times Mirror, the Chicago Tribune’s empire, Reader’s Digest Inc.–and the Shintoist directorship of Sony (which owns Columbia Studios and Tri-Star Pictures).

The far-right media “critique” also ignores the role of major shareholders: buccaneers like Warren Buffett (Disney’s largest investor); cyberlord Bill Gates (who owns a big piece of Dreamworks and MSNBC); Gordon Crawford, who manages the media holdings for the secretive Capital Group (which owns a chunk of every major player).

But more important, the far-right attack ignores the crucial point about today’s media: Increasingly, their owners are publicly traded multinational corporations, chiefly answerable to banks, insurance companies and other institutional investors–and to advertisers, who are almost always the key source of revenue. Thus guided, corporate capitalism runs the show with no concern for any race or faith or for anything but profits.

But this meme will not die. Wikipedia, which is great for cross referencing things, provides a very useful current list of American mass media owners. Much national and international media is owned and controlled by just 47 people, many of whom share family lineage, making the numbers much smaller. On that list, four or so are identified as Jewish. Now, some will point out that this list includes only owners, not CEOs and decision makers. However, CEOs can be ousted fairly easily, but it takes a long while for a company to change hands.

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