Posted on 02/23/2004 7:38:59 AM PST by truthandlife
The sports talk radio host who interviewed Mel Gibson's father last week is denying that he tricked the 85-year-old man into giving him a series of explosive quotes attacking Jews.
"He knew exactly what was going on," Steve Feuerstein, who interviewed the elder Gibson for the Talkline Communications Network, told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg on Sunday.
"When I air my show, people will hear me talk to him . . . about airing the show and about how much I'm looking forward to sharing his views with my listeners," Feuerstein said. "This man knew 100 percent what was going on."
On Thursday, Gibson family sources told NewsMax.com that Feuerstein never told Mr. Gibson he was being taped for broadcast, identified himself only as "Steve" and said he was a fan of Mel Gibson who wanted to congratulate the Hollywood star's father on the movie "The Passion of Christ," due for release this Wednesday.
As he had in a previous interview, the elder Gibson raised suspicions that he's anti-Semitic, telling Feuerstein that he believed Jews had exaggerated the Holocaust and were pursuing "one world religion and one world government."
But NewsMax.com's James Hirsen, who has covered the making of "Passion" extensively, said Thursday that while Hutton Gibson's comments were "indefensible," they're also "irrelevant."
"Mel's dad didn't make the movie; Mel Gibson did," he told Fox News Radio's Alan Colmes.
On Friday, Catholic League President William Donohue said reporters were using Gibson's father unfairly in a bid to discredit his son's movie.
"They’re going after Mel's 85-year-old father. . . . . Make no mistake about it, those obsessed with killing this movie will not manipulate Bill Donohue into berating Hutton Gibson. Nor will they push me to ask for information on how I can contact their fathers, though the thought is tempting."
If this is true, than depending on applicable state law, Mr Feuerstein may have committed an illegal offense, and Gibson's family could seek (and probably win) a temporary court injunction to prevent this tape from being aired. They'd better hurry, though. The states which require "all party consent" to tape phone conversations are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington.
According to extremists on both sides...yes. Look at how the radical left calls the President "Bush Jr." and says he is just like his "Daddy". The radical right points to Bush as part of the "one world order" conspiracy because of a reference his Dad once made. Both of these views have no basis in reality...they are just as looney as the senile rantings of Mel's Dad. If I was Mel, though, I would put a severe hurting on anyone that used my aging Dad in an effort to smear me.
It is in his self-interest to limit access to his Dad before the film's release, especially when skunks like this radio guy tape him without prior consent. Mel should know better...his father is a huge target for the athiest Left.
Mel Gibson said, "I don't want to be dissing my father. He never denied the Holocaust; he just said there were fewer than 6 million (Jews killed). I don't want them having me dissing my father. I mean, he's my father."
Mel Gibson has defended his father over claims he is a Holocaust denier.
Hutton Gibson has publicly doubted that six million Jews died during the Second World War.
In an interview with Reader's Digest, Braveheart star Mel said he would not hear any criticism of his father.
"My dad taught me my faith and I believe what he taught me. The man never lied to me in his life," he said, when asked about Hutton's controversial comments.
"He lost his mother at two years of age. He lost his father at 15. He went through the Depression. He signed up for World War Two, served his country fighting the forces of fascism. Came back, worked very hard physically, raised a family, put a roof over my head, clothed me, fed me, taught me my faith, loved me.
"I love him back. So I'll slug it out, until my heart is black and blue, if anyone ever tries to hurt him."
Asked directly if he believed the Holocaust happened, Gibson replied: "I have friends and parents of friends who have numbers on their arms. The guy who taught me Spanish was a Holocaust survivor.
"Yes, of course. Atrocities happen. War is horrible. World War Two killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps. In the Ukraine, several million starved to death between 1932 and 1933."
First of all, to hold Mel accountable for his father's senile rantings is pathetic. What the detractors have done in harassing and inciting an 85 year old man in order to slander Mel is disgusting.
My grandpa said he saw pink elephants once...doesn't mean I believe in pink elephants, but I'd certainly defend his right to say he saw pink elephants...because I would take into consideration his mental condition at the time, something that these detractors have failed to do with Mel's father.
Ok. So you are saying that Gibson should what, maybe hire some private dick to lock his 85 year old dad in his room and prohibit him from communicating with anyone outside the house? Somehow, I don't think that is possible. I certainly would not allow one of my kids to come to my home and dictate to me where I would go, whom I could speak too, etc. That is my right to do as I please. Same with his father.
Hutton Gibson follows a tiny wing of traditionalist Catholicism that views the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council as a conspiracy between Jews and Masons to take over the church.
The elder Gibson has stirred controversy in previous interviews with remarks on the Holocaust and Judaism, but had kept quiet in the months leading up to the release of "The Passion."
In this latest interview, Gibson said Jews want to take over the world. He did not know why Jews would want to achieve that, but said "it's all about control. They're after one world religion and one world government."
We're not talking about a single comment from a single interview, either. Hutton Gibson's views got airplay last year as well. There is more out there for those willing to dig it up. The themes are familiar enough.
I don't think I'm reading any more into Hutton Gibson's attitude about Jews than the written word reveals.
Read it one more time...
Mel Gibson said, "I don't want to be dissing my father. He never denied the Holocaust; he just said there were fewer than 6 million (Jews killed).
For the media to leap from that statement to claiming he totally denied the holocaust is an exaggeration. Any newspaper that would use these tactics is only worthy of being a bird-cage liner.
On Thursday, Gibson family sources told NewsMax.com that Feuerstein never told Mr. Gibson he was being taped for broadcast, identified himself only as "Steve" and said he was a fan of Mel Gibson who wanted to congratulate the Hollywood star's father on the movie "The Passion of Christ," due for release this Wednesday.
Who's lying?
Was Newsmax doing its trademark shoddy journalism again?
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