Here's something you might be interested in.
A few days ago, I happened to be reading an article on Slate.com re the 200th anniversary episode of "South Park," a show I don't watch. The comments were mainly about one of the characters that had been edited out, a depiction of the prophet Mohammed. Viacom, who owns Comedy Central, which airs "South Park," had apparently gotten nervous and decided to censor out all images and references to the character, including bleeping out a song at the end, all this despite the fact that a few years previously the prophet Mohammed had been depicted as a character in the show, as seen in a link to Wiki provided in the article.
This morning an article in the New York Times discussing the car bombing in Times Square suggests that one theory on the motive is that the Viacom building was nearby where the bomb was set to go off. So apparently, if true, Viacom went to all that trouble for nothing. Weisberg at Slate goes to great lengths analyzing how the "South Park" episode was so much more powerful because of the censoring. I think the car bombing puts a whole different spin on that interpretation.
So here we go again with this lesson we just can't seem to learn. Emiliano Zapata said it best: "Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." I think those people at Viacom are finding out how bleeping on your knees works. It seems to me if they're gonna pay the price then they ought to at least act with some dignity and courage.
A few days ago, I happened to be reading an article on Slate.com re the 200th anniversary episode of "South Park," a show I don't watch. The comments were mainly about one of the characters that had been edited out, a depiction of the prophet Mohammed. Viacom, who owns Comedy Central, which airs "South Park," had apparently gotten nervous and decided to censor out all images and references to the character, including bleeping out a song at the end, all this despite the fact that a few years previously the prophet Mohammed had been depicted as a character in the show, as seen in a link to Wiki provided in the article.
This morning an article in the New York Times discussing the car bombing in Times Square suggests that one theory on the motive is that the Viacom building was nearby where the bomb was set to go off. So apparently, if true, Viacom went to all that trouble for nothing. Weisberg at Slate goes to great lengths analyzing how the "South Park" episode was so much more powerful because of the censoring. I think the car bombing puts a whole different spin on that interpretation.
So here we go again with this lesson we just can't seem to learn. Emiliano Zapata said it best: "Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." I think those people at Viacom are finding out how bleeping on your knees works. It seems to me if they're gonna pay the price then they ought to at least act with some dignity and courage.