Letter from MRC President Brent Bozell to ABC News President Ben Sherwood
Mr. Ben Sherwood
President, ABC News
7 West 66th Street
New York, NY 10023
Dear Mr. Sherwood,
The news media need to be reporting on documented instances of anti-Semitism at the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Movement. On October 21 of this year, Media Research Center's Joe Shoffstall interviewed an OWS participant, who said: 'The Jews commit more white collar crime than any other ethnic group on the earth, and they go unprosecuted because they can buy their way out of it. When the Jew gets caught, they will pay a civil penalty. So, in America, Jews commit more white collar crime. Whenever there's a billion dollar fraud, there's a Jew involved."
This is not the first time this has happened. There have been other documented examples of anti-Semitism at these Occupy Wall Street events. But thus far the national networks are turning a blind eye to them.
On the other hand, the networks have been obsessed with alleged racist smears by members of the tea party, and this includes ABC News. On March 20, 2010, during a segment of ABC's World News, David Muir reported: 'And now we turn to late word from Washington tonight about just how ugly the crowds gathered outside the Longworth Office Building had become. We learned that as Congressman Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri was leaving his office, someone in the crowd spit on him. There are also reports of racial and homophobic slurs, one targeting Congressman John Lewis, the famous civil rights champion....'
Let's be clear: These allegations have never been corroborated, and there's not a scintilla of video or audio evidence to back them up. But still it qualified as news for ABC.
Now we have Occupy Wall Street and real, documented evidence of anti-Semitic slurs coming from an OWS participant. You cannot maintain you didn't know it, the video is here: http://mrctv.org/videos/occupy-wall-street-protester-rants-against-jews
ABC must report this. If you choose not to, your network will be guilty of a glaring double standard: reporting baseless accusations of racism coming from the Tea Party as news; but not reporting documented evidence of anti-Semitism coming from the OWS crowd. If you choose not to report this you are deliberately covering up an act of anti-Semitism.
We have the full video of this incident. Just call us if you would like to see it.
Sincerely,
L. Brent Bozell III
Founder and President
