South Park censored
April 14th, 2006 at 8:30 am by David FarrarSouth Park has got away with ridiculing the Church of Scientology, with grossly offensive episodes against Catholics, in fact with most things. How-ever Comedy Central has deleted/censored from last night’s show a four second harmless (just giving someone a fish and saying Jihad twice) depiction of Muhammed. They did have Jesus and George Bush defecating though. Yes this is the double standard we enjoy.
Comedy Central justify their outrageous decision on the grounds of “recent world events”. What w**kers. Their message is if you burn down some embassies we will censor our TV shows, but if you just peacefully protest we will not.
The irony is the entire episode was about why it is bad to censor. I’ll blog a summary as there were some very strong messages there.
This is sadly the world we live in today. When extreme adherents of one religions have terrorised most of the world’s media into imposing their religious beliefs onto the rest of us.
UPDATE: Someone has leaked out the uncensored version. A screen shot is below and you can click here for the nine second video clip. Now remind yourself that this nine seconds is what was deemed unsafe to air.
UPDATE2: The uncensored version is probably a fake.
Related posts:
- South Park vs Scientology
- Reason Mag interviews South Park creators
- South Park legal downloads
- Atheist censored
April 14th, 2006 at 9:11 am
The message is loud and clear, plain and simple!
TERRORISM WORKS.
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 10:23 am
>The message is loud and clear, plain and simple!
>TERRORISM WORKS.
Yes. But the really disconcerting bits that stick with me are:
That Muslims have values that they are committed to defending. I might think the values stink but I can’t fault the Muslim desire to defend them (but disagree with the means).
Our Western media, politicians and many people spout values too.. but are not prepared to defend them because of physical threats, loss of trade or some other woolly liberal notions.
The difference in defence of values will not be lost on terrorists and simply encourage more terrorism.
JC
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 10:35 am
I disagree John. Catholics and Scientologists and heaps of other interest groups have values they consider worth defending. And they defend them. They make press statements, they engage in peaceful protest and they lobby. They usually do not resort to violence, and lose respect from many others when they do.
You are just choosing not to notice their commitment to their principles. One such principle is not to murder and use force over such matters.
Somehow, by large groups of Muslims acting with violence, we have people saying they must have stronger values, they deserve more respect and understanding – but we can disagree with the extremes they go to.
No.
This shows the opposite. They react in mindless rage, often hurting innocent bystanders or punishing the “wrong-doers” far in excess of the “crime”. That is not worthy of respect and proves nothing about commitment to protecting their values. These people (and specifically these people, not all Muslims) are no better than thugs.
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 10:57 am
Two questions:
Is it possible to think of a weaker case of “imposing their religious beliefs onto rest of us”? Missing nine seconds of South Park?
Isn’t it somewhat likely that this is exactly the reaction that South Park’s writers wanted to get from the network? Having seen the episode, it seems as though they thought they could Comedy Central to play into their hand. Not saying that it’s not censorship, but it seems a little less shameful to censor someone’s who’s really asking to be censored.
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 11:20 am
If you think this is about just nine seconds of Southpark, you are sadly mistaken. It is about freedom of speech and freedom from enforced religion.
And no they did not want to be censored. They wanted to make a point about why censorship is bad. Ironic.
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 11:26 am
Go here and let Comedy Central know just what you think of their decision…
http://www.comedycentral.com/help/questionsCC.jhtml
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 11:29 am
And how is that offensive???
Vote:It certainly seems to be a double standard when you consider that they let through Bloody Mary and not this.
April 14th, 2006 at 11:31 am
*I disagree John. Catholics and Scientologists and heaps of other interest groups have values they consider worth defending. And they defend them. They make press statements, they engage in peaceful protest and they lobby. They usually do not resort to violence, and lose respect from many others when they do.*
If you check, I said “media, politicians and many people”. Of course interest groups and individuals defend their values.
When the cartoon protests first broke out, I had no difficulty with our media not publishing the cartoons and govt taking a passive role; but the protests morphed into a full scale and deliberate attempt to subvert Western freedoms and *that* did demand a response. I thought the Dom Post got it about right at that stage.. it responded to the freedom issue by publishing several cartoons without going overboard. But the other media that didn’t publish lost credibility with me.
The govt didn’t look too good either by looking first to trade issues and to utilising the good services of the local Muslim population to put in a good word for NZ.. that smacked of cringe making when it was a time to be firm about our principles and reasserting values.
JC
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Since when have TNCs like Viacom (owner of Comedy Central, owned by retiring CEO Sumner Redstone) been credited with ethics? It’s about the money, stupid. I hope Parker & Stone do the bird to Tom Freston before changing channels.
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Interestingly enough in the very same show Jesus is show defacating on George Bush and the American flag.
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
The clip is fake, apparently.
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
They should write on the bottom of the screen.
Vote:“please note this is not an actually depiciton of mohammad it is a depiction of a person who THINKS he is mohammad please dont kill us.. please,, oh damn.. arrrgghhh!!!!
April 14th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Maybe not entirely relevant, but the ‘war on terrorism’ is justifying everything from lawbreaking to expanded govt powers right across the board.
People are constantly justifying radical changes to democracy- and they’re not advocating short-term, temporary or finite changes either. They seek fundamental and permanent changes to our system of government.
Many Muslims found the cartoons funny. And many Danes are very xenophobic, so the cartoons didn’t spring from some wonderful ideas on freedom. A Dane writes about the motivation here:
http://randomplatitudes.blogspot.com/2006/02/digression-origins-of-xenophobia-in.html
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
“It is about freedom of speech and freedom from enforced religion.”
What a laugh. You can’t claim freedom of speech against a commercial network, Comedy Central is free to broadcast what they wish. I think censorship is wrong, but nobody’s keeping you from saying anything, and it’s not as though this hasn’t earned more publicity for Stone & Parker (hence why I think they’re asking to be censored.)
Freedom from enforced religion? Comedy Central won’t show this so now we have to convert to Islam? Mindbending logic to get you there my friend.
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
Sure it isn’t Government censorship – it is corporate cowardice. And freedom from religion isn’t about converting you stupid stupid person, it is having to follow religious dictates such as not portraying Muhammed.
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
When governments behave like nation incorporated – they submit to boycott threats.
When elections are about which party delivers more to each interest sector and which party has the best balance for the electorate, our democracy itself is part of the same system.
Moslems have also successfully used the immigrant card to be seen as a race and thus to portray criticism of Islam (and associated Moslem behaviour) as some “racist” hate crime disrupting inter-group behaviour (bad for multi-cultural society). So much so that Catholics seem to think they can now also object to religious criticism. No wonder inter-faith alliance has never seemed so good and convenient to both parties in their war with liberal secular western democracy.
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 4:33 pm
I love your comments section DPF. No YOU’RE stupid.
I thought the market worked. Why don’t you just stop watching Comedy Central’s shows if you don’t like their censorship.
And there are Russians under your bed. Boo!.
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 4:59 pm
If someone says incredibly moronic and stupid statements yes I will call them stupid.
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
“The difference in defence of values will not be lost on terrorists and simply encourage more terrorism”
Excellent post – John
Vote:April 14th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
Just because DPF calls something stupid doesn’t mean he wants the Government to ban it… unlike some people.
Vote: