Rant of the Week: South Park 200&201

So last night the second half of television's South Park's controversial two part episode about the prophet Muhammad, Tom Cruise, The Super Best Friends, the identity of Cartman's father, along with nearly every other past plot line the show has ever dealt with aired.

Santa Claus posing as Muhammad in a bear suit.

I thought it was great.  It did a great job working references of past episodes in, it had a lot of very funny moments, and I loved the way they worked Scott Tenorman in.  The conclusion of the episode I also thought was very well done.  A relevant and meaningful statement on censorship that made the point that if people aren't willing to expose themselves to things they are uncomfortable with they are doomed to never understand them.  

But there was a catch.

You may have seen the hub-bub this particular episode caused on a few cable news outlets which reported that the show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, received some not-so-thinly veiled death threats from muslim groups for even suggesting they may show the image of their prophet.

Coverage of this from networks like CNN and Fox pissed me off for a few reasons.  One, these muslims, whose rhetoric is pretty much on par with neo-nazis, are clearly a fringe group of extremists and reporting on them is going to send out the impression that they represent all muslims, which I can imagine would be pretty insulting for any non-fundamentalists muslims out there.  And second, interviewing them and running the story only adds credibility to their position and beliefs, as if it is alright to act as they do and this, again, is what all muslims believe.

So now, you ask, what does that have to do with the episode(s) exactly?  Well, it turns out that today the world is finding out that Comedy Central did censor the episode further in reaction to the threats.  It isn't clear exactly what was censored because Parker and Stone wrote it to be and what was later censored by the network but it is entirely possible that, in an amazing feat of irony, the show's message condemning censorship was made as a result of the censorship it faced at the hands of its own network.

I find this whole saga to be troubling and the ending to be a sad day for free speech in this country.  Just like this group of muslim extremists could say what they liked about the show and its creators, the show should have been able to make its own statement on Muhammad or whatever else they see fit.  Fear and hate overcame freedom and understanding.  I hope at least we will learn from it.