Turned out a column for the NYPost published today on Cowardly Central.

***update: Jim Lindgren at The Volokh Conspiracy has an intriguing report on his interview with a South Park executive producer. Excerpt:***

In an interview Thursday evening, South Park Executive Producer Anne Garefino revealed to me that the show was faced with two options: deliver the episode as written and animated with Mohammed shown and then allow Comedy Central to censor it, or edit out the disputed scene and write their own language explaining why Mohammed was not being shown and whose decision it was. “We wanted everyone to understand how strongly we felt about this,” said Garefino. Although the decision to omit Mohammed was not theirs, they wanted the language of the censorship disclosure to be their own.

Along with South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker (who are also Executive Producers of the show), Garefino was heavily involved in the negotiations with Comedy Central. She made clear that the reason for Comedy Central’s decision was “fear”: “We were happy that they didn’t try to claim that it was because of religious tolerance.” She thought that South Park’s arguments and influence might have had something to do with the candor of Comedy Central executives on this point…

***update II: official Comedy Central response***

Dear Viewer,

Thank you for your correspondence regarding the “South Park” episodes
entitled “Cartoon Wars.” We appreciate your concerns about censorship and
the destructive influence of outside groups on the media, entertainment
industry and particularly Comedy Central.

To reiterate, as satirists, we believe that it is our First Amendment right
to poke fun at any and all people, groups, organizations and religions and
we will continue to defend that right. Our goal is to make people laugh and
perhaps, if we’re lucky, even make them think in the process.

Comedy Central’s belief in the First Amendment has not wavered, despite our
decision not to air an image of Muhammad. Our decision was made not to mute
the voices of Trey and Matt or because we value one religion over any other.
This decision was based solely on concern for public safety in light of
recent world events.

With the power of freedom of speech and expression also comes the obligation
to use that power in a responsible way. Much as we wish it weren’t the
case, times have changed and, as witnessed by the intense and deadly
reaction to the publication of the Danish cartoons, decisions cannot be made
in a vacuum without considering what impact they may have on innocent
individuals around the globe.

It was with this in mind we decided not to air the image of Muhammad, a
decision similar to that made by virtually every single media outlet across
the country earlier this year when they each determined that it was not
prudent or in the interest of safety to reproduce the controversial Danish
cartoons. Injuries occurred and lives were lost in the riots set off by the
original publication of these cartoons. The American media made a decision
then, as we did now, not to put the safety and well being of the public at
risk, here or abroad.

As a viewer of “South Park,” you know that over the course of ten seasons
and almost 150 episodes the series has addressed all types of sensitive,
hot-button issues, religious and political, and has done so with Comedy
Central’s full support in every instance, including this one. “Cartoon
Wars” contained a very important message, one that Trey and Matt felt
strongly about, as did we at the network, which is why we gave them carte
blanche in every facet but one: we would not broadcast a portrayal of
Muhammad.

In that regard, did we censor the show? Yes, we did. But if you hold
Comedy Central’s 15-year track record up against any other network out
there, you’ll find that we afford our talent the most creative freedom and
provide a nurturing atmosphere that challenges them to be bold and daring
and places them in a position to constantly break barriers and push the
envelope. The result has been some of the most provocative television ever
produced.

We would like nothing more than to be able to look back at this in a few
years and think that perhaps we overreacted. Unfortunately, to have made a
different decision and to look back and see that we completely
underestimated the damage that resulted was a risk we were not willing to
take.

Our pledge to you, our loyal viewers, is that Comedy Central will continue
to produce and provide the best comedy available and we will continue to
push it right to the edge, using and defending the First Amendment in the
most responsible way we know how.

Sincerely,
Comedy Central Viewer Services

***

Dane G. has a new CC logo entry.

Ed Morrissey has three letters for Trey Parker and Matt Stone: HBO.

See-Dubya muses on The Right and The Duty to Insult.

Blogger Bill Hobbs gets smeared over a Mohammed Cartoon.

Reader Tiffney notes that the Muslim boycott of Danish products continues to hurt dairy producers (via the Financial Times of London from Tuesday):

A Muslim boycott of Danish goods, prompted by the publishing of Prophet Mohammed cartoons, reduced the country’s dairy exports by 85 per cent in February, data from the national statistical office showed yesterday.

Exports of dairy products - including milk, butter and cheese - fell to DKr130m (Pounds 12m) in February from DKr840m in the same month last year. The export of butter was particularly badly hit, falling to about Dkr2.5m from DKr110m.

Jakob Legard Jakobsen, analyst at Nykredit Markets, said yesterday’s figures gave an insight for the first time into the impact of the Middle Eastern consumer boycott of Danish products.

He noted that the boycott, which has mainly affected exports by the Danish-Swedish dairy co-operative Arla, had continued until April.

“The boycott continued throughout March,” he was quoted as saying in Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that first published the Mohammed pictures, considered blasphemous by Muslims, in September last year.

“Therefore we estimate that (in March) the total Danish dairy export was reduced by approximately the same amount as in February,” the analyst said.

He added that the figures from the first quarter of this year suggested Denmark would lose about 10 per cent of its annual dairy exports this year, corresponding to about DKr1.5bn.

Danish dairy producer Arla has bowed and scraped to the jihadists in a p.r. campaign distancing itself from Denmark’s defenders of the Jyllands-Posten, which published the Mohammed Cartoons to protest Islamic intimidation.

Reader Adina K. writes:

Hi Michelle,

It is not an understatement to suggest that the US is committing religious and (multi)cultural suicide. It is slowly careening down the path of Eurabia.

From the horrific state of Islamic bowing and scraping throughout our university system, (Columbia’s recent genuflection toward Libya’s tyrant-in-chief is a prime example) to the stifling of free speech out of ‘deference’ to Muslim sensibilities, and to the overall Infiltration of our country ( as ominously noted by Paul Sperry) we haven’t got a prayer in hell of surviving the Islamic onslaught.

The only question that remains is - how soon will we be forced to scream Allahu Akbar?

Our situation is so dire that even in the midst of my annual Passover Seder the conversation kept veering toward the Islamic assault we are all under. God help us all!

Historian Arnold Toynbee had it right: “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.”

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