I think you've misunderstood his point, which I tend to agree with.
The Sopranos is very well done trash, which I frankly haven't watched that many times. It sterotypes Italians in a way that wouldn't be acceptable for any other ethnic group. This is probably because many Italians seem to enjoy and appreciate the sterotyping.
Many central and northern Italians do indeed look down on Italians from southern Italy and Sicily, from whom most Italian-Americans are descended. There was even a political party a few years back of northern Italians who wanted to secede to get away from the southerners.
Yeah, I'm 1/2 Napolitan' myself so I know the whole story about how "all Sicliani carry knives" and how the Marchegian folks in Chicago Heights were from a better part of Italy: "We weren't no peasant dagos!" But Greeley is always an a-hole and he should go back to worrying about his beloved Irish who "saved civilization."
It's not stereotyping, it's presenting 1 of many subsections of 1 of many racial mixes. There are indeed Italian/ Sicilian organized criminals in this world, there are also Italians and Sicilians who have nothing to do with crime. Problem is from a TV/ movie perspective Italian bakery owners that have no ties to crime are boring. That's why the movies and Sopranos are about the criminals. Though in Sopranos you also have Italian shrinks with no ties to crime, Italian FBI agents whose only ties to crime are trying to put the main characters in jail, and walk by Italians of just about every other profession with no ties to crime other than occassionaly unknowningly serving mobsters as customers. The whole stereotyping claim is BS, always has been since the Italian anti-defamation people first started whining about the first Godfather movie, and will continue to be BS.
The Sopranos isn't as good this year as past years, IMO, but over time it's been innovative and quite brilliant. It also paved the way for the whole current slew of "gritty" more true-to-life TV dramas on the free networks, a welcome change from the pablum of yesteryear.
As far as I know it still exists, and is still led-to the best of my recollection-by Umberto Bossi.
I am FBI, Sicilian in fact, and I agree 100%. I have often said that if I had to compose a self serving stereotype, it would look a lot like the Italian/Gangster stereotype. Many Italian American's don't mind it at all, and indeed ham it up a bit.
I have never been bothered by the stereotype at all, notwithstanding my looks, downtown Manhattan pedigree, and notorious family surname.
Chicks dig it. ;-)