Gibson Admits Anti-Semitic Remarks, Denies He’s An Anti-Semite, Asks Jewish Leaders For Help
I know, that headline looks like a parody; but at least give Mel credit for a rapid attempt at damage control:
Mel Gibson said Tuesday he is not a bigot or an anti-Semite and he apologized to “everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words” he used when he was arrested for drunken driving.
“Hatred of any kind goes against my faith,” he said in a statement issued through his publicist Alan Nierob.
“I’m not just asking for forgiveness,” Gibson said. “I would like to take it one step further, and meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one-on-one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing.”
It was the second apology the 50-year-old Oscar winner has issued through Nierob since his Friday arrest.
Gibson said he’s “in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display” and hopes members of the Jewish community, “whom I have personally offended,” will help him in his recovery efforts.
“There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark,” Gibson said.
“But please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith.”
The Anti-Defamation League accepted Mel Gibson’s second apology, saying it “sounds sincere.” ADL national director Abraham Foxman said this was the apology the group had hoped for the first time. Once Gibson finishes “his rehabilitation for alcohol abuse,” Foxman said, the group will “help him with his second rehabilitation to combat this disease of prejudice.”
In his statement, Gibson acknowledged “there will be many in that community who will want nothing to do with me, and that would be understandable. But I pray that that door is not forever closed.”
He said he must take responsibility for making anti-Semitic remarks because as a public person, “when I say something, either articulated and thought out, or blurted out in a moment of insanity, my words carry weight in the public arena.”
Gibson noted that his apology and efforts to repair relations with the Jewish community “is not about a film.”
ABC announced late Monday that it had scrapped plans for Gibson to produce a miniseries on the Holocaust.
A wise move by ABC, no doubt. Meanwhile, Ann Althouse goes a little overboard in her condemnation:
What artist has ever crashed like this? Not Michael Jackson. Not Woody Allen. Not O.J. Simpson. You’ve shown an evil heart and it changes the meaning of all of your artistic work. How horrible! How painful! Try to imagine the penance you must do.
Worse than O.J.(!!??!!)? Ann backed off a little:
I concede that my comment about O.J. Simpson is extreme (and that Simpson isn’t an artist, though it would be easy to make up some sports-talk bullsh** declaring his athleticism artistic). My point is that what Simpson (presumably) did doesn’t change the meaning of the achievements that made him a big star. Gibson, on the other hand, has revealed something loathsome about his mind that affects our interpretation of the works of art that sprang from that mind. In particular, it changes “The Passion of the Christ,” which had to be defended at the time of its release from charges that it is anti-Semitic.
What a maroon. What an imbessill.
To be clear, I’m talking about both Mel and Ann.^^
The man declared that these drunken exhalations were despicable lies that he did not believe; a difficult formulation for a memeber of th Aryan Nation. I’ve been under the influence my own self though fairly certain nonesuch ever escaped my gob nor entered my brain but I’m willing to give the Road Warrior some slack here. Of course, I’m not jewish. Though I am a Zionist.
Credit where credit’s due — his publicisist deserves a raise for his/her well written apology. But, if my Jewish in-laws are in any way representative, it won’t make any difference. Gibson’s problem isn’t that he behaviour has raised questions about whether he is an anti-semite, it has answered them.
MEL GIBSON: Enough already!
There are anti-Semite bigots in this world, I’ve known anti-Semite bigots; Mel Gibson is not an anti-Semite bigot.
At least he’s not an anti-dentite.
Ann’s point is mostly nonsense. This changes the interpretation of Passion, I suppose, for those eight people who had already missed the part where the shifty Jews murdered our Lord and Savior. But the fact that Mel Gibson’s an anti-Semite doesn’t really change how I view Mad Max or Lethal Weapon. The real story is that there were still people in the world who had seen Passion and didn’t already know that this guy hates Jews. Also part of the real story is that so many people seem to believe that being stone drunk makes you less likely to tell the truth.
I only have one thought of signifiance on this. I give Mel a lot of credit here. That’s the most heartfelt and sincere sounding apology I’ve ever seen/heard from a public figure of any kind. Most of them are not really apologies, or when they are, they never admit any wrongdoing. Mr. Gibson does both, admit wrongdoing and publicly apologizes for it. You can choose not to believe him, and there may be good reason to do so. However, if you can’t accept this apology, then you can’t accept ANY apology from a public figure (which might not be a bad thing).