Avengers star Mark Ruffalo has responded to the suggestion he had invoked "antisemitic tropes" in his ongoing criticism of Paramount's $111 billion Warner Bros. buyout.
Responding to the claim, made in a lengthy and unusual statement by Paramount itself, Ruffalo dubbed the accusation as "appalling and fundamentally dishonest."
The issue stems from Ruffalo's continued pressure on Paramount over its controversial takeover of Warner Bros., a transaction that Ruffalo and numerous other Hollywood stars have said will likely result in consolidation, cost-cutting and job losses, plus particular concern surrounding the independence of Warner Bros.' news organization CNN. Paramount is owned by David Ellison, and the buyout's finances will be backed his father Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of technology firm Oracle and the world's sixth-richest person.
In an Instagram story last week, Ruffalo commented on a video featuring Oracle vice chair Safra Catz, who discussed Oracle's public backing of the Israeli military in the wake of October 7 terrorist attacks, and the subsequent deployment of what she described as Oracle's "really profoundly scary technology" to the Israeli army.
"These 'really profoundly scary technologies' will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you," Ruffalo wrote in response. "Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.
"We have a chance to stop this," the actor continued. "There are 12 state Attorneys General suing to block this merger. It will be catastrophic for our film industry. Mergers like this one are almost always bad for workers, consumers and the industry they tend to dominate. It's a classic antitrust case. It will hike up the cost of cable and flatten out competition. This means less choice for our audiences. It also concentrates an enormous amount of creative control to companies that say and do things like this strange woman from Oracle."
In a response statement issued to The Hollywood Reporter, a Paramount spokesperson took the unusual step of directly quoting and discussing Ruffalo's Instagram story, branding his message as containing "antisemitic tropes" and suggesting that such statements expose "the true motivation of some who have advocated opposition to this transaction." Paramount's response lies below in full:
"We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute," the Paramount spokesperson stated. "Words like 'genocide' and 'apartheid,' applied to a corporate transaction, aren't just wrong — they're a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe. This doesn't deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don't tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/appalling-and-fundamentally-dishonest-mark-ruffalo-slams-paramount-after-studio-suggests-warner-bros-buyout-criticism-stemmed-from-antisemitic-tropes
