Some facts about Haim Saban:
He entered US politics in 1996 when the Clinton administration was debating creating government standards for kid’s shows. (“Are kids shows like Power Rangers too violent?”) Saban was one of the TV executives to push for the industry to create its own rating system which is what ended up happening.
In 2001, Saban made 1.5 billion selling Fox Family Worldwide (which included Saban Entertainment which included Power Rangers) to Disney. This was the largest cash payout to a person in Hollywood history and he funneled that money into politics.
The deal with Disney had to be approved by international governments and some of them were taking what he felt was too long to approve the deal, so Saban called Bill Clinton and had him call the Brazilian president to move things along! (Saban started donating to the Clintons back in like 1996 after the whole rating systems for kid’s shows thing.)
Saban has stated that his goal is to influence American policy to be pro-Israel. He openly states that he does this through: 1) funding politicians, 2) funding think tanks, and 3) taking control of the media.
Saban is a top donor to the Democrats and of Hilary Clinton. He was a major supporter of Clinton during both her 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns.
He created the Center for Middle East Policy and owns a large share of Univision Communications.
MotherJones wrote a really good article on his political investments here.
His politics have moved increasingly to the right over the years.
Unfortunately, Saban is SUPER ISLAMOPHOBIC. For example (and there are many examples), he seems to think Muslims are all potential “terrorists” and should be scrutinized before entering the United States. :/
