When will the media learn that certain moviemakers are habitual gadflies who can’t resist winding up journalists with some timely, controversial statements that will afford them way more publicity than the craziest Hollywood marketing budget could dream of? Oliver Stone, whose 10-hour television documentary “A Secret History of America” will air this year on Showtime, chose the British Sunday Times to launch his latest assault. The Times is a Murdoch rag that’s placed its content behind a pay wall. The National Post grabbed this excerpt:
The 10-part documentary [which Stone is planning] will address Stalin and Hitler “in context”, he says. “Hitler was a Frankenstein but there was also a Dr Frankenstein. German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support.”
He also seeks to put his atrocities in proportion: “Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30m.”
Why such a focus on the Holocaust then? “The Jewish domination of the media,” he says. “There’s a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy for years.”
Just to ensure wide coverage, Stone made sure to push a couple of other hot button issues, as reported by MSNBC:
If that weren’t enough, Stone also defended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom he met recently.
“Iran isn’t necessarily the good guy,” he said in the Times interview. “But we don’t know the full story.” Stone said U.S. policy toward Iran was “horrible.” (In 2007, Ahmadinejad rejected a proposal by the Oscar-winning director to make a film about him, calling Stone part of the “Great Satan” — America.)
Stone also praised Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez — subject of his “South of the Border” documentary — as “a brave, blunt, earthy [man].”
