Posted on 12/30/2005 11:40:04 AM PST by NYer
Several news stories today are reporting on the decision by Comedy Central to pull a scheduled rerun of the Bloody Mary episode that was shown on South Park on December 7-10. The decision reflects what I asked for in our news release of December 8. Therefore, I commend Comedy Central for finally making the right decision. That it aired in the first place, however, does not speak well for the bigots responsible for creating it.
In our December 8 news release, I also said, Remember, they chose to insult Our Blessed Mother on the eve of the Immaculate Conception, and the holy day itself. The episode in question featured a statue of the Virgin Mary spraying blood from her vagina. It was one of the most vile TV shows ever to appear, and that is why I asked Joseph Califano, a practicing Catholic and member of Viacoms board of directors (Viacom is the parent company of Comedy Central) to issue a public condemnation of the Bloody Mary episode; I also asked that he do whatever he could to pull any scheduled reruns of the episode.
On December 9, the day Califano received our request, he released a statement condemning the episode. He also said that any further decisions would have to be made by Tom Freston, president and chief executive of the New Viacom. For the past few weeks, we have been in touch with Frestons office awaiting his decision. Yesterday, we received a phone call from Tony Fox, executive vice president for corporate communications at Comedy Central, informing us that there were no plans to rerun Bloody Mary.
Already, we are being deluged with hate mail that is as obscene as it is viciously anti-Catholic. All because we exercised our First Amendment right to request that Comedy Central not offend Catholics again! But were used to such things and will not be deterred.
The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. It defends individual Catholics and the institutional Church from defamation and discrimination.
I hate to be the bad guy here, but for all the work the CL does, Bill Donohue still supports homosexual civil unions, which is explicitly against Church teaching. I wish Catholics would put some pressure on him about this. Because in the grand scheme of things, homosexual civil unions are a far greater threat than anything on TV. I don't want to support a Catholic group that is fighting against Church teaching no matter what they do.
I saw that episode. My impression was that the scenes questioned here were unecessary to the topic of the story. The other parts were funny. The Virgin Mary part was not.
great another thread so the FR Holier than thou club can come out and demonize those that enjoy the show.
NO thanks, I'll pass.
Agreed.
a/k/a The Humor-Impaired Club
yeah that too....
but they enjoy not having a sense of humor whereas if you call them "holier than thou", it makes them mad because it hits them right between the eyes.
I certainly won't defend this episode, which indeed sounds vile and disgusting. But I'll say this for "South Park." Unlike most other shows, they don't single out Christianity for abuse, while honoring a host of sacred cows. They make fun of everyone. Which means that they're attacking the Church bothers me much less than it would coming from other quarters.
Good for the Catholic League!
But be careful everyone, a certain poster has reappeared who LOVED that episode and who begins to weep and whine if anyone makes even a passing reference to his posting name.
Amazing how people like him think everyone else humor-less if we object when our beliefs are attacked, but even a little passing reference to his posting name goes right through his very thin skin.
not really.
Not as much as this CARTOON has irked YOU, at least, to force YOU into FR stalking me from South Park thread to South Park thread....
I can't believe people on FR look to a CARTOON to have their values reaffirmed.
That strikes me as really WEAK.
I get annoyed when Donohue starts morphing into Foxman.
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