Letter from MRC President Brent Bozell to CBS News President David Rhodes
Mr. David Rhodes
President and Chief Executive Officer
CBS News
51 W. 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019-6188
Dear Mr. Rhodes,
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. Ironically, some of this has been covered by CBSNews.com, but not the CBS Evening News.
On the other hand, the networks have been obsessed with alleged racist smears by members of the tea party, and this includes CBS News. On March 21, 2010, during a segment of Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer reported: 'Demonstrators protesting the bill poured into the halls of Congress shouting 'Kill the bill!' and 'Made in the USSR.' And as tempers rose, they hurled racial epithets, even at civil rights icon John Lewis of Georgia.'
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 CBS.
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
CBS 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
