And here is a guy who breaks down this stupid and racist myth step by step from the comment section no less!
The table tries to "prove" the claim that the American media is controlled by Jews by showing the supposed large number of Jewish executives in media companies. Before we go over the factual errors and the misrepresentation, we need to address the faulty logic behind this attempt at proof. The table shows us the executives of the companies, while executives have power over the content generated by their company, it is arguably lesser than the influence held by people actually creating the content itself - the writers, reporters, directors, actors, producers, editors and other people involved with the creative process. The table doesn't try to explain why does the Steven Spielberg, as the founder of Dreamworks animation, has more influence on the American media and culture than Steven Spielberg, as the director who won two Oscars on WWII films, one depicting the life of a German businessman who saved Jews during the Holocaust, and one depicting the exploits of a squad of American soldiers looking for another soldier on the western front of WWII.
The table also puts Vice Presidents of a company as having the same influence as CEOs, Presidents and Chairpersons of the board, which is not true for all VPs. One example is the Associated Press; their site, shows they have eight VPs. Of those, the author of the table chose to put Jessica Bruce, the director of HR, and Kathleen Carroll, the executive editor. Surely the head of HR doesn't have the same influence as the executive editor. Moreover the VPs who control the financial aspects didn't made the list. Surely if a CEO controls content because they control the money, the Chief Financial Officer of AP should make the list of influential figures together with (if not instead of) the head of HR. AP is not the only company with more executives that the table claims. NBC entertainment has 28 executives listed on their site. Google has 6 executive officers and another 7 senior leaders. The same goes to Fox News, The New York Times and many others.
The table includes the founders of a company, many of whom - like Walt Disney, Carl Laemmle, Albert Warner and others - have been dead for decades, and could no longer have direct influence on the American media and culture.
The table doesn't differentiate between media that generates independent content and media which is merely a platform for user generated content. For example, the News channels and film companies create their own content, while the content that appears on Facebook, Google and YouTube is not generated by the owners or employees but by the users. Nine of the ten most subscribed YouTube channels by days are operated by private non-Jewish people, and one is the official channel of YouTube.
It also doesn't differentiate between demographics. Disney appeals to younger demographic than News companies. The demographic a company appeals to can be very influential on its effect on the media as the susceptibility of people changes with age.
It is misrepresentative as there are many people who appear several times in the table, people like Mark Zuckerberg, Rupert Murdoch, Marissa Mayer and others. So a person like Mark Zuckerberg, who is the President, CEO, Founder, owner and chairman of Facebook appears more times on the table than the President and CEO of a major news network (Roger Ailes from Fox News).
The table is cherry-pickeded. Not every company has been put on the table. e.g. Facebook is on, but not Instagram, Twitter and other social platforms. The table includes MTV but not VH1, Marvel but not DC comics. I'm sure that there are other major media companies which are absent from the table.
The question of whether a person is Jewish or not can be complicated, as there is a duality of religion and nationality. According to Jewish religious law, everyone who is born to a Jewish mother is a Jew. The only other way to become a Jew is through a conversion process. But once a person is a Jew (whether by birth or otherwise), in the eyes of the religious law that person will always stay a Jew, even if they convert to another religion. A person born to a Jewish father and a non Jewish mother is, at the eyes of the religious law and tradition, isn't a Jew.
Many people are atheist, but see their Jewish heritage as a cultural heritage, in a way familiar to Americans with Irish, German, Italian and other ancestors in the USA. A good example for this is Jon Stewart, who isn't a religious person, yet on his show he constantly talks about his Jewish heritage, about the Jewish traditions and identifies with Jewish stereotypes.
Finally, for the sake of this answer we must accept the criteria that is put by the claim. The claim is made by a racist society that tries to convince us that there is a Jewish conspiracy to take over the media/banks/world. They are not very interested in the religious and cultural identity of each individual, so for the sake of this answer, I take the broadest definition possible: who ever has Jewish ancestry from either side of their family or is a converted Jew. So under this definition, everyone who is a Jew according to the Jewish religion is counted, as well as whoever has Jewish ancestry only from their father's side. It will include atheist and non practicing Jews, as well as Jews who converted to another religion (if there are any who are relevant). This is a very broad definition and it will also include people like Benjamin Disraeli, Karl Marx. If there are any people who were Jews but latter converted, I'll note that.
More on who is a Jew can be read in the Wikipedia article, and on other sources online (The Economist, JewFAQ.com...).
Some of the sources for showing that a person is not Jewish, are racist blogs with no sources. This is only used when no other better sources are found, and under the assumption that a racist blog will not let a Jew or even a suspected Jew to "escape".
This is still a work in progress, as going over all the names takes time.
From now on the specific claims of the table will be checked, I only check the ethnicity of the people mentioned, not whether they hold the position claimed in the table.
People in the table, and whether they are in fact Jewish:
Incorrect
Deb Finan - Jew in table but not really Jewish, source: racist blog
Phil Griffin - Jew in table, but not really Jewish, only married to one. source: racist blog
Marissa Mayer - Jew in table but not really Jewish. source: Wikipedia
Steve Jobs - Jew in table but not really Jewish. source: Wikipedia
Eric Schmidt - Not a Jew in reality. source: theAlgemeiner.com, but appears in the table several times, and in one of the times (as the chairman of CNN) he appears as a Jew, while in all other he isn't.
Arianna Huffington - Not a Jew in reality. source: Wikipedia but appears in the table several times, and in one of the times (as the co-founder of Huff post) she appears as a Jew, while in all other he isn't.
Correct
Vivian Schiller - Jew in Table and reality. source: Tabletmag.com
Mark Zuckerberg - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Larry Page - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Sergey Brin - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Jeffrey Katzenberg - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Steven Spielberg - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
David Geffen - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Rupert Murdoch - Not a Jew in the table and in reality. source: Wikipedia
Hutch Parker - Not a Jew in the table and in reality. source: racist blog
Ronald Meyer - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Thomas Rothman - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
William Fox - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Joseph Schenck - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
James Schamus - Jew in Table and reality. sources: some blog and The New York Times
Carl Laemmle - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Ted Turner - Not a Jew in the table and in reality. source: Wikipedia
Leslie Moonves - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Dana Walden - Jew in Table and reality. source: abbanibi.com
Sheryl Sandberg - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Nikesh Arora - Not a Jew in the table and in reality. source: racist blog
Robert Iger - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Sumner Redstone (Rothstein) - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Roger Ailes - Not a Jew in the table and in reality. source: TheJewishWeek.com
Brian Lewis - Not a Jew in the table, I couldn't find any confirmation of his religion or ethnicity, but since the table puts his as a non-Jew, I'm applying the "racist blog" rule here and accept this with the disputed claim as the source.
Stacey Snider - Jew in Table and reality. source: Jewish Women's Archive
The Warner Brothers - Jews in the Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Paul Reuter - Jew in Table and reality. source: Wikipedia
Ralph Waldo Emerson - Not a Jew in the table and in reality. source: Wikipedia
Henry Longfellow - Not a Jew in the table and in reality. source: Unitarian Church of Quincy
Undetermined
Kathy Keller-Brown - Jew in table, couldn't verify either way.
Patricia Fili-Krushel - Jew in table, couldn't verify either way. She did chair an event of the UJA-Federation of New York.
Tom Rogers - Jew in table, couldn't verify either way.
John Nicol - Jew in table, couldn't verify either way.
alvy ray smith - Jew in table, couldn't verify either way.
Lew Coleman - Jew in table, couldn't verify ether way.
Adam Fogelson - Jew in Table, couldn't verify ether way. His last name is Jewish
Jennifer Salke - Jew in table, couldn't verify ether way.
Robert Merrick - Jew in table, couldn't verify ether way.
John Lasseter - Jew in table, couldn't verify ether way.
Holly Bario - Jew in table, couldn't verify ether way.
The table also puts NBC Universal as the owner of MSNBC, Time Warner as the owner of HBO and The Woodbridge Company as the owners of Reuters, and puts them as half jewish and half not. It also puts Hearst Corporation as the owner of Cosmopolitan and puts it as non Jew. Corporations don't have religion, race or ethnicity.
http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/19974/are-american-media-controlled-mostly-by-jews
