A New York Times story reports that ABC is working on a Holocaust miniseries from Mel Gibson, whose father denies the Holocaust and who has been accused by many — me included — of antisemitic portrayals in his Passion of the Christ. And then there is this:
But Quinn Taylor, ABC’s senior vice president for movies for television, acknowledged that the attention-getting value of having Mr. Gibson attached to a Holocaust project was a factor.
“Controversy’s publicity, and vice versa,” Mr. Taylor said.
That is a singuluarly cynical and disgusting act of media.
Elie Wiesel says that we must not bring theater to Auschwitz or Auschwitz to theater — that is, we must not exploit the emotions of the Holocaust for the sake of drama or think that drama can adequately tell the story.
But bringing crass TV flackery to the Holocaust is much more deeply disgusting.
