Outrage over Mel Gibson's tirade misplaced

News flash: Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite.

That was the big story coming out of Hollywood last week. Cable news channels seemed like broken records discussing the many facets of “Melgate,” and blogs used their best Internet real estate on drunken pictures of the “Lethal Weapon” star.

If you run a Google search on Gibson and hadn’t heard anything about his drunken driving arrest in California on Aug. 4, you probably wouldn’t learn very much about the crime itself. Many columnists are dead set on nailing Gibson, director of “The Passion of the Christ,” as a Christian hypocrite, and apparently, public enemy No. 1.

Gibson had been speeding down the Pacific Coast Highway and blew a 0.12 on the breathalyzer. Initial reports said he was arrested without incident, but he allegedly launched into a tirade that included anti-Semitic remarks, such as, “F*** Jews... the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”

The arresting officer was Jewish and told the Associated Press that he wasn’t particularly offended by Gibson’s remarks. He chalked it up to a drunken man acting stupid.

Meanwhile, there is outrage in Hollywood, much of which is controlled by Jewish producers and directors. Barbara Walters said she would never see another Gibson film. Rob Schneider of “Deuce Bigalow” fame took out an ad in Variety to state that he would never work with Gibson (not that Mel would be interested in the next installment of “The Animal” anytime soon).

Disney, which is promoting Gibson’s upcoming epic “Apocalypto” is running scared. ABC said it halted plans for a Gibson-produced miniseries on the Holocaust.

But they’re not outraged that Gibson was speeding excessively with an open container of tequila by his side. They’re not outraged that he was endangering the lives of the general public. They’re not outraged that he was breaking one of our country’s most important laws.

It’s sad that more air time and attention is given to what a drunken man said than to what he did.

Don’t get me wrong. I definitely think what he said was, in his words, “despicable.” But when the murder of six Jewish women at the Jewish Federation office in Seattle got second billing, for a time, to Gibson’s story on the Anti-Defamation League’s Web site, there’s certainly a disconnect.

The fact remains that disliking, or even hating, a group of people is not against the law. This “thought crime,” as columnist Zev Chafets put it, won’t do much for Gibson, who relies on public perception to keep his movie projects greenlighted. But if it were a non-celebrity, the nature of his remarks wouldn’t even be an issue.

I find it “despicable” that the important issue of drunken driving is being overshadowed by Gibson’s remarks. In Louisiana in 2004, 38 percent of all 904 fatal crashes were alcohol-related. A friend of mine lost her father to a drunken driver earlier this year, and I’m sure every one of my readers has a similar story.

Gibson is now in a position to do some real good by advocating for groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

He has had his troubles with alcohol in the past, and I think if he can clean up and continue to be vocal about his ordeal, he will help others who may be in the same situation. He has apparently gone into rehab, and hopefully he will not be given preferential treatment when he is brought up on his charges.

I suppose with the war between Israel and Lebanon still raging, Americans are especially sensitive about hateful remarks against our allies. But I have to believe that the threat of motorists dying is much more important than an actor’s drunken, un-acted-upon tirade.