'60 Minutes' Does the Usual Italian Black Face, Ignoring the Jewish 'Cosa Nostra'

Yahoo Sports breaks a taboo today, by saying that both general managers for the American League teams in the championship series share "ethnic/religious heritage." They're both Jewish. The writer can't even get that word out of his mouth, but the story is helpful; it advances knowledge about the Jewish presence in the Establishment, rather than mystifying this issue.

It stands in bright contrast to "60 Minutes" last night, which devoted not one but two pieces to hackneyed ethnic portrait. The lead piece was on a 300-pound FBI guy who infiltrated the Gambino family and put x number of mobsters in prison. I think his name is Falco. I don't even want to supply the link. The piece involved the ways that a man from Cuban background had successfully mimicked Italian ways to get in tight with the mob. Learned to say manicotti right, that kind of thing. He's written a book, published by CBS's sister company, of course. (The media are all mobbed up.)

In the second piece, Morley Safer went to some Italian wine making family and portrayed their ancient landloving lifestyle. Thereby balancing the crude and predictable Sopranos shtik of the first piece with the predictable refinement of food Italians. The hidden theme was, Safer sure likes going to Italy. Maybe he has a house there? The third piece on "60 Minutes" was a slavish description of the pacification of Sadr City in Baghdad by General Odierno using drones that can take out a pickup truck with a missile from 2 miles up. Lesley Stahl "reported" this. I wonder how many civilians the Americans have killed. I love "60 Minutes." This was the worst show I've seen in many years. 

Back to my hobbyhorse. The Italian stuff is a form of minstrel show. Tired ethnic stereotype, while the new ethnic story is before our eyes, and yes I wonder how many of the writers and producers at "60" are Jewish. The Mafia piece is about "their thing," that thing the lawless Italians don't speak about, which I guess involves taking a 2 percent cut of the food-preparation and garbage-hauling and trucking industry? Something like that. True corruption. But what about our thing? What about the Israel lobby, embedded in Establishment life, distorting our Middle East policy, destroying Palestinian hopes, undebated by our presidentials, and steeped in omerta?

Comments

[Joachim Martillo]

Phil is a little too America-centric when he discusses Jewish politics.

Because Chris asked me some questions about the Lubavitchers and Putin, I tried to put together summary highlights of Lubavitcher, Russian (and Georgian) Jewish Oligarchs, and Vladimir Putin interactions. See Chabad (Lubavitch), Putin, Russian Oligarchs.

[Todd]

Phil and Joachim, do either of you believe that your careers have been helped by being Jewish? Any tales of Jewish networking? Would your careers be helped by towing the line on Jewish issues? I know that Witty often hints that Phil is ruining his career, so I guess these are obvious questions.

I didn't see the 60 Minutes piece, but it is no surprise that a mafia story ran since America loves a good Italian mob story. Still, I can't remember a mainstream report or depiction that is negative towards Jews. The wacky but lovable Jew is about as bad as it gets. I think that Marlon Brando was right, except that he left out the redneck.

[Riley]

hobbyhorse? a horse that does not move but sways back and forth..so you are getting nowhere Phil? I wonder why that is? Are you Jews biologically incapable of subjecting themselves to the same punitive scrutiny that they so gleefully subject others?

[David Brown]

Let us not forget the Jewish mobsters who ran Hollywood and the garment industry. Like thier Italian counterparts they were white trash.

[anon]

Let's compare the history of white power with the history of other-than-white powers throughout history. The test of collective virtue is
power.

[Richard Witty]

Ask about the trajectory and content of Phil's career.

For a very long time, Phil pursued a conventional journalistic success path, willingly seeking and taking assignments that were interesting, and contreversial enough to be interesting, but not enough to threaten his reputation.

His Jewish parents sacrificed a great deal to send all of their children to not insignificant schools. They earned well as professionals, had financial ups and downs, but committed to their kids' education.

His radicalism is new. We were radical as childhood summer friends. But, for a while he conformed. During the period that he conformed, I was radical. Now, that I have kids, I'm more conventional, and he has room and momentum to run his car fast to the bridge under construction.

[Ed]

It’s important to remember that the political correctness that has made discussion of Jewish power taboo is largely a left-liberal construct that was engineered by government, academia and media to allow Jews to ascend into their current positions of power in America without scrutiny or criticism. We are now seeing how devastating such a construct is for any society, as it creates an un-vetted elite that harbors bitter, unresolved hostilities towards those over which it has ascended. How many of our current problems can be traced to the fact that most Jewish elites simply don’t like gentiles in general, and Christians in particular, and thus consciously or sub-consciously sabotaged American society from their positions of power, and are still doing so to this day even as we sink further into the mire?
-------
On the embargo in mainstream media against discussions of Jewish power: it has actually created a gaping hole which bloggers and other truth tellers can exploit for influence and profit. The mainstream media has basically hobbled itself through its unwillingness to tell the truth, and more and more people understand that, and hence are increasingly turning away from those sources and towards the internet. The embargo is almost akin to the old Soviet media’s unwillingness to discuss the Communist government as the root of the Soviet Union’s problems out of both fear and complicity. Fortunately, Americans have the internet, which might (might!) be able to save the country by airing the problem before final, Soviet-like collapse.

[anon]

Chertoff and Mukasey both worked in the US Attorneys office under Rudy G. in NYC destroying what was left of the Italian mob so that their Russian/Israeli cousins could take the business over.

Kosher Nostra is a taboo topic in the mainstream media.

[anon]

I have kids too, and I am with Phil, not Witty.

[tomwhite]

The fact that an absolutely top-level WASP like Bishop Sayre had his career "truncated" by his support for the Palestinians shows very plainly who is the real elite, that is, the one that calls the shots. It's the Jews, as all right-thinking WASPS, honorary WASPs (Irish, etc), and even rednecks know. At the same time few rednecks know any Jews so the whole thing is a bit puzzling to them (us?). It's about money, of course, and money is uber alles the Jewish thing. There I go again with anti-semitic remarks. Naughty. Amazing that the Jewish prominence in the recent plundering of dear old USA is not mentioned much, but it's noticed. The chief enforcement cadre protecting the Jews is the vast cohort of used-to-be Christians who consider anti-semitism worse than—what?—incest, pedophilia, treason, murder, etc. The Holocaust is more precious than the crucifixion. Und so weiter. TW

[D.]

I love the way Richard always describes himself as a "friend" of Phil.

Stalker seems more apt.

[Eva Smagacz]

I cannot comment on Phil Weiss's parents in the way that Richard Witty can.
But I would loose all respect to myself as a parent, and to my children if they EVER had to compromise on their ethical convictions just because I worked my fingers to the bone (and I did) to get them through the good schools.

What sort of universe is this where you, as a parent, sacrificed your money and time to bring the children via good schools and colleges, and you glory in upwards trajectory of their career, but then you loose your moral compass and you disapprove when they make difficult and courageous decisions about standing for human rights at a great personal expense?????

I just hope that I brought my kids to have guts like that.

[MM]

a conventional journalistic success path

Gosh, is Satan still in the souls market?

I would've thought he had moved on to hedge funds and credit default swaps by now. Like his pal Marty Peretz.

[Joachim Martillo]

Phil and Joachim, do either of you believe that your careers have been helped by being Jewish? Any tales of Jewish networking?

I was at one time interested in a career in Eastern European and Jewish studies until I realized that funding and professorships depended on not diverging too far from a Jewishly or Zionistically correct consensus narrative of Jewish history.

In most of my business ventures my attitudes toward Zionism (originally sympathetic now strongly opposed) have been completely irrelevant -- mostly because my business partners and I have worked off of family funding.

At the beginning of the Internet boom, Jewish connections seem to have helped strongly in getting funding and in getting the greenlight to an IPO without the traditional four quarters of profitability, but the definitive analysis of finance during that time period has yet to be published.

My sister has worked in the finance industry for decades and is always asked whether she is Jewish for the purpose of Jewish networking.

I saw the pervasiveness of Jewish finance networking while working on finance models in the late 80s and early 90s. It peaked my curiosity, and I began to attend finance networking events sponsored by Jewish organizations. In theory the events were open to the public, but just as is the case with similar events at Hillel, the Jewish religious or returnee elements tends to discourage non-Jews from attending.

My family (and also my prep school Pingry) has a history with the film industry.

Both my scripts Devorah's Two Weddings and Two Weeks in September received good reviews from the scriptreaders but never made much headway toward funding -- probably more because of the content than because of my personal political views, which by the time I wrote them became quite anti-Zionist.

With sufficiently clever allegory it is possible to get a Palestinian sympathetic message into Hollywood films (see Planet of the Zionist Apes), but then the writer risks the possibility that a large part of the audience will never understand the story.

BTW, I overlapped with Michael Chertoff at Pingry and remember that he believed all the standard Zionist mythology back then (early 1970s). Senior officials from Washington Muslim organizations tell me that he is one of the more reasonable Bush officials, but he might be a little better than most Bushites/Neocons in concealing his true beliefs.

[Jim Haygood]

"The piece involved the ways that a man from Cuban background had successfully mimicked Italian ways to get in tight with the mob. Learned to say manicotti right, that kind of thing."

In other words, the inverse of Al Pacino portraying a Cuban mobster in "Scarface."

But then, Pacino also played Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" -- one of those rare cases of a gentile being tapped to impersonate a Jew, when the reverse is probably ten times more common.

Wonder how that happened?

[higginslads]

"His radicalism is new. We were radical as childhood summer friends. But, for a while he conformed. During the period that he conformed, I was radical. Now, that I have kids, I'm more conventional, and he has room and momentum to run his car fast to the bridge under construction."

Richard, I enjoy it when you write like that. It's real, it's human. Why does your writing morph into intellectual gobbledygook when you attempt to defend Israel?

Incidentally, it's interesting that what you and many others view as "radical," Phil, myself, and others view as sane and honest. How can we bridge this gap?

[morris]

Don't worry bout a thing

[higginslads]

"But then, Pacino also played Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" -- one of those rare cases of a gentile being tapped to impersonate a Jew, when the reverse is probably ten times more common."

The only other instance I can think of offhand is the actor who played Jerry Seinfeld's father on Seinfeld (a show with an incredibly heavy Jewish presence, that only admitted to Jerry being Jewish, and perhaps George being half-Jewish (his mother, although it was never said). But all 4 lead actors were Jewish in real life (Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine), and so many of the guests were Jewish. Interestingly, George's fiance Susan was Jewish in real life, yet she and her family were obviously supposed to be old world WASPS.

Barney Marin, who played Jerry's father on Seinfeld, was Irish Catholic in real life, and was often told by Jewish Seinfeld fans of how much he reminded them of their fathers.

[Joachim Martillo]

Hollywood casting is an interesting issue.

According to legend the studios preferred to cast non-Jews as Jews.

I am not sure it is true, but Maxmilian Schell, whom I have always assumed to be non-Jewish, played Otto Frank in The Diary of Ann Frank.

I have often been curious about story choices. Why did Madame Sousatzka's pupil change from Jewish to E. Indian when the novel was adapted to the screen?

And I have been always puzzled that the villain of The Cheat was a fabulously wealthy Japanese ivory merchant that lived in NY City at the beginning of the 20th century.

[Todd]

"I was at one time interested in a career in Eastern European and Jewish studies until I realized that funding and professorships depended on not diverging too far from a Jewishly or Zionistically correct consensus narrative of Jewish history."

I always believed that I could tell what papers I should write in a given course after observing the professor for a few classes. I was usually too stupid to do so, but I was also usually right. A free exchange of ideas was definitely not welcome in the universities that I attended.

It's pretty clear that there are Jewish networks in entertainment, government and finance. Higher incomes and exclusive insider networks are supposedly the clues that a group is elite. So I would guess that Jews are elites in those areas. But I've always wondered about manufacturing.

I know that Jews were not heavily represented on the entreperneurial end of manufacturing, but I'm not sure about the managerial side. Would a Jewish rise to elite status signal a decline in the importance of manufacturing?

In my experience in manufacturing I didn't meet many Jews, but the general manager of the company I worked for (a manufacturer of aircraft support vehicles) was Jewish, and he had a real sore spot about the "poor treatment of Jews" in the industry. When I interviewed for the job, I knew that he wasn't interested in me until I noticed a picture of Moshe Dayan on his wall and started talking Israel to him. I may be wrong, but I doubt that he would have hired me otherwise.

"I have often been curious about story choices."

Me too. I recently watched a movie about Betty Paige, and there was a scene where she was gang raped (it wasn't pornography). In the movie, she was raped in Nashville by your typical rednecks and left for New York afterwards as a result. But when I watched the producers commentary, it was explained that the rape actually happened after she arrived in New York. Go figure.

[Michael Weis]

I think the reason the media rarely does anything that is critical of any Jewish group is because people tend to blame the Jewish people and find them responsible for the actions of their coreligionists. When somebody does a piece on the Italian mafia, nobody then goes to say that the Italians and Italy are the cause for all the world's problems. But when the stock market goes down or something else happens which happened to have some Jews involved, people tend to blame the Jews and Israel.