Bloody Mary: War on Xmas over, War on Blasphemy starts

Here's the head of the Catholic League gloating over the organization's victory in convincing Comedy Central to pull a controversial episode of South Park this week:

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 Viacom’s 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 Freston’s 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 we’re used to such things and will not be deterred.”

Link (Thanks, Todd Jackson, headline swiped from H.O.T).

Previously on Boing Boing:
"Bloody Mary" resurrected: censored South Park hits P2P

Reader comment: Damien says,

I've added some information regarding the controversy to the episode's Wikipedia page itself. Link

Reader comment: Steve Wallace says,

Here's the link to Comedy Centrals feedback form if anyone wants to send them a note letting them know how you feel about the whole South Park censorship deal. Maybe enough viewer mail will let them know they made a bad decision.

Reader comment: IZ Reloaded says,

Comedy Central may have pulled down the rerun of the South Park episode Bloody Mary after the Catholic League successfully issued a complaint but over at its South Park Studios website, it is still making available clips of the episode for download. Link

Reader comment: Keith Blackwell says,

I just read that Catholic League reply to the South Park episode; "... All because we exercised our First Amendment right to request that Comedy Central not offend Catholics again!" Their first amendment rights? What about the First Amendment rights of people to broadcast satirical cartoons? Why can't they not watch if they are so easily offended?