Famous record industry manager calls out muted response in music biz over Oct. 7 massacre: ‘Shame on us’
'I’m begging of my industry, to just post something, say something, ask for the hostages to come home,' Scooter Braun said
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Justin Bieber’s former manager Scooter Braun took a stand for victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre this week, putting out a video with a relative of one of the victims of the tragedy that demanded artists in the music industry to speak out against the brutality.
In the video posted to the record company executive’s Instagram page on Friday, Braun and Rachel Goldberg, the mother of a young man named Hersh – who is still being held hostage by terror group Hamas – spread awareness about her son and other victims of the attack on the Nova music festival that happened near Kibbutz Re’im on the 7th.
"Shame on us if we don’t" use our influence, the record exec stated.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sitting with Goldberg, Braun stated, "Her son is now 76 days being held in Gaza. The last images she saw of him, he had his left arm blown off. He’s a lefty like she is."
Scooter Braun, Justin Biebers manager and former Kanye West collaborator, called out people in the music industry for not speaking out against Israels Oct. 7 massacre. (Michael Buckner/Penske Media via Getty Imagesv)
Braun then rebuked mainstream music artists and journalists for not speaking out on these victims’ behalf.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I find it insane that I’m the one standing here with her, or that we’re the ones who had a conversation," he said, adding, "There should be people with 100 million followers and much bigger platforms who do this for a living, who are artists, who are reporters, who should be giving her a platform."
The famous manager noted how Goldberg has tried to reach out to "so many people" to talk about the people harmed in the attack, but hardly any have gotten back to her.
In the video, Braun added, "But because of the nuance of the conflict, they don’t want to talk about this. I think every single one of us in our industry knows that if this was any other situation, any other country, we’d be losing our minds, speaking up how a music festival is not an appropriate place for people to be shot in cold blood."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Braun is not the first in the entertainment industry to call out his colleagues for their silence on Israel’s victims. Actress Julianna Margulies and others have publicly asked where other entertainers and industry executives have been in calling out Hamas’ terror attacks.
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This image from video provided by South First Responders shows charred and damaged cars along a desert road after an attack by Hamas terrorists at the Tribe of Nova Trance music festival near Kibbutz Re'im in southern Israel on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (South First Responders via AP)
In the clip, Hersh’s mother said, "But I think the silence from the music industry has been so deafeningly palpable for us and for all of the people who have children who were either massacred or are missing."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She added, "And I just hope that you will be brave enough to use your platform because you have to be able to look at yourself and know that you’re doing the right thing for those kids who died at that festival, or those kids who are suffering terribly in captivity right now. And I hope you have the courage to do that."
Braun continued, "I’m begging of my industry, to just post something, say something, ask for the hostages to come home, say that no music festival deserves this."
He concluded, "I’m not asking for you to talk about the massacre. I’m not even asking you to talk about the conflict right now. This was ours. This was a music festival, a peaceful music festival. They deserve to hear our voices right now as an industry. And shame on us if we don’t do it."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News Digital reached out to a Rep for Braun for additional comment.