Comedy Central

Police are apparently investigating whether or not there is a link between threats to the creators of the hit cartoon series "South Park" and Saturday's failed car bomb attempt in New York's Times Square.

As NewsBusters reported a few weeks ago, Muslim extremists threatened the lives of Trey Parker and Matt Stone due to an episode featuring the prophet Mohammed dressed in a bear's suit.

Comedy Central caved to the pressure and eliminated all such references.

New York's Daily News reported Sunday there might be a link between those threats and what happened in Times Square the previous evening:

The Seattle cartoonist that created "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" has changed her request to "Everybody Draw Al Gore Day."

As readers are likely aware, Molly Norris last week published a cartoon calling for a nationwide protest over Comedy Central's decision to censor its two-part episode involving the prophet Mohammed:

Do your part to both water down the pool of targets and, oh yeah, defend a little something our country is famous for (but maybe not for long? Comedy Central cooperated with terrorists and pulled the episode) the first amendment. 

On Thursday, Norris posted a video at her website explaining why she created the first cartoon, and directed her followers to instead take up a splinter campaign started by a group called "I Hate The Media!", namely "Everybody Draw Al Gore Day" (video follows with copies of both cartoons, h/t WaPo's Comic Riffs): 

While the story of the South Park death threats may not specifically constitute bias in the media per say, it does highlight an embarrassing pattern that has sent Big Media the way of the dinosaur, and a disturbing pattern that has people kowtowing to aggressive threats from radical Islamists. 

We'll start with the MSM.  Zachary Chesser, or Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee as he is known on the Revolutionmuslim.com Web site that hosted his death threat, recently garnered serious attention from major networks such as CNN and Fox.  But the fact remains that these networks only came upon Chesser after an egregious threat was made, and after several blogs had already covered it.  And they certainly hadn't done their homework as the blogs had, documenting the history of his disturbing radical statements.

The Jawa Report has been able to highlight several instances of odd behavior from Chesser, including a statement regarding the recent plane crash that killed the President of Poland and his wife, along with 96 others.  The statement, as highlighted here, includes a celebration of the tragedy: 

A new poll found almost three quarters of the nation disagreed with Comedy Central's decision to censor last week's two-part episode of the hit cartoon series "South Park."

As NewsBusters reported last Thursday, the network caved to pressure from a radical Muslim group to not make references to the prophet Muhammed. 

According to pollster John Zogby, a large bipartisan swath of Americans believe this was the wrong decision:

As a result of threats made to the creators of the hit cartoon series "South Park," the New York Police Department has beefed up security at Comedy Central's headquarters.

As NewsBusters reported Monday, a radical Islamic group threatened the lives of Trey Parker and Matt Stone due to a two-part episode featuring Mohammed in a bear's costume.

Newsweek's Declassified blog reported Friday that the NYPD actually got advanced notice of the threat, and is acting accordingly (h/t @allahpundit):

On last night's "Daily Show," Jon Stewart noted the blatant censorship his employer Comedy Central exercised against its popular show "South Park" by banning it from showing, and even uttering the word "Mohammed" in this week's episode after a threat came forward from an Islamic group.

"The censorship was a decision Comedy Central made I think as a way to protect their employees from what they believe was any possible harmful repercussions to them," Stewart stated, adding, comically, that "after forcing many of these same employees to work on [Comedy Central shows] "Mind of Mencia" and "Crod Mandoon" … damage done. But again they sign the checks."

Stewart is one of the few left-leaning media figures to note a glaring double standard: in popular culture, religions of all kind are regularly mocked but Islam mostly gets a free pass. "Comedy Central decided to censor the episode. It's their right," Stewart stated. "We all serve at their pleasure." But his extensive recap of all of the religions the show has made fun of over the years was clearly a critique of Comedy Central's decision.

The elite gatekeepers of American pop culture huff and puff about freedom of speech. But when political correctness actually threatens that right, Hollywood's stalwart defenders of free expression are nowhere to be found.

Last night, Comedy Central gave into threats of violence against the creators of the animated sitcom "South Park"  and not only censored the image of the Muslim prophet Muhammed -- as it had last week and in one previous episode -- but even censored every verbal mention of the the prophet's name (see the video below the fold).

The decision came days after a radical New York-based Muslim fundamentalist group warned that Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the show's creators, would be killed for supposedly mocking Muhammed.

Fox News contributor Bernie Goldberg hit back at Jon Stewart today, saying the "Daily Show" host was "throwing spitballs at a battleship" by attacking the Fox News Channel.

The back-and-forth between Stewart and Goldberg began when the former leveled accusations of hypocrisy, claiming Goldberg criticized others for generalizing while doing so himself. Stewart responded to Goldberg's retort with a musical number presumably titled "Go F--k Yourself."

Goldberg said he had "no problem with what [Stewart] did last night," and was "flattered" that he "devoted half of his show last night to me." But Goldberg went on to call a group of Stewart's most devoted fans "sewer rats" for trolling his site with vulgarity during the past couple days, and told Stewart to "man up."

Comedian Jon Stewart Tuesday responded to Bernie Goldberg's criticism of "The Daily Show" host by performing a Gospel tune with the lyrics "Go f--k yourselves."

As a little background, Stewart last week went after Fox News and Goldberg ending the segment, "I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Go f--k yourselves."

This prompted a response from Goldberg on Monday's "O'Reilly Factor" wherein he accused Stewart of being "Jay Leno with a much smaller audience, but you get to say the f-bomb."

After a lengthy segment Tuesday addressing Goldberg's admonition -- which included the comedian actually admitting that there is liberal bias in the media!!! -- Stewart led a choir in vulgarity-laden song (video follows with partial transcript and commentary, song begins at 9:10, h/t Mediaite):

Bernie Goldberg on Monday accused Jon Stewart of being a gutless comedian that is much harder on Tea Partiers and Fox News personalities than liberal media members.

Appearing on "The O'Reilly Factor," Goldberg admitted that "The Daily Show" host was right when he said last week that FNC anchors and hosts often make generalizations about liberals. 

But "when you had [New York Times columnist] Frank Rich on your show, who generalizes all the time about conservatives and Republicans being bigots," Goldberg said as if speaking directly to Stewart, "you didn't ask him a single tough question." 

"You gave him a lap dance. You practically had your tongue down his throat."

The former CBS Newser continued, "You are just a safe, Jay Leno with a much smaller audience, but you get to say the f-bomb, which gives your incredibly unsophisticated audience the illusion, the illusion that you're courageous and that you're a renegade" (video follows with partial transcript, h/t The Right Scoop):

Believe it or not, CNN - the same CNN which has recently dismissed the Fort Hood terrorist as lonely, has featured a member of ‘Jihad U' as a teacher of the ‘nuts and bolts of Islam', and which has run three separate stories interviewing the father of radical jihadist, Anwar al-Awlaki - has actually taken interest in a jihadist threat of physical violence upon the creators of South Park.

It seems that Trey Parker and Matt Stone have raised the ire of a radical, pro-jihad Web site known as RevolutionMuslim.com, for the egregious crime of portraying the Prophet Mohammed disguised in a bear suit.  A posting on the Web site does what most jihadists do - makes a direct threat and calls it a warning. 

The outstanding citizens of RevolutionMuslim.com, an organization based in New York City, had this to say:

"We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them."

Van Gogh was murdered partly because of another man's ‘religious conviction', and partly because of a controversial film he directed about the abuse of Muslim women.

The posting puts an exclamation point on the threat, by showing a photograph of Van Gogh's corpse with a knife driven into his chest, including the caption, "Have Matt Stone And Trey Parker Forgotten This?"

There are other factors however that make this posting more than just a simple ‘warning' as the author states...

Liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow appeared on the Daily Show, Tuesday, to promote her new Timothy McVeigh special and to compare, "The dark side of it is that [McVeigh] really did see himself as part of an anti-government movement in the United States...And, right now, I think we are experiencing an upswing again in sort of anti-government extremism."

Maddow didn't go into detail about who, exactly, is encouraging this upswing. Ads for her April 19 special, The McVeigh Tapes, have touted that it will put "into perspective the threat posed by anti-government extremism." In a commercial for the spot, Maddow lectured, "We ignore this, our own very recent history of anti-government violence and the dangers of domestic terrorism, at our peril."

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert on Tuesday actually moderated a debate about global warming.

In fairness, it was less of a debate and more a vehicle for him to make fun of his guests Joe Bastardi of Accuweather and Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Regardless of the comedic intent on the part of the host, there were indeed some wonderful moments, in particular Bastardi pointing out that we're going to know in the next five to ten years whether there really is a connection between increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and global temperatures (video follows with highlights and commentary):

Comedy Central takes joy in mocking the Catholic Church. (See "Merry F---ing Christmas" for one classic example.) The March 24 episode of South Park had the Eric Cartman character trash the church three times when he's asked questions he thinks are an obvious yes:

-- "Does the Pope help pedophiles get away with their crimes?"

-- "Is the Pope Catholic... and making the world safe for pedophiles?"

-- "Does a bear crap in the woods... and does the Pope crap on the broken lives and dreams of 200 deaf boys?"

The same spirit animated Jon Stewart's Catholic-bashing rants on the April 7 Daily  Show, which dipped into the Middle Ages for mudslinging:

Everyone knows Fox isn't "the most trusted name in news," so who is? You guessed it - and at least one media tycoon agrees. Speaking at the University of Missouri as a guest-lecture, Craig Newmark - Craigslist founder and informal Obama technology-advisor - argued that Comedy Central is the most trustworthy news source.

Invited to discuss the future of journalism - where individuals virtually have an endless amount of resources in today's era of new media - Newark stressed how trust and credibility was paramount, emphasizing the exemplary dedication Comedy Central shows have for investigative reporting and fact-checking.

"[R]ight now I think the most trusted news show in the U.S. is the one that does the best investigative reporting and the most trustworthy reporting - and that's ‘The Daily Show,'" Newark said - and he wasn't joking. "Sounds like a joke - isn't."

Liberal comedian Jon Stewart featured a rare conservative voice on Tuesday's Daily Show, former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen. As he often does during the occasions he talks to right-leaning guests, Stewart turned combative, attacking Thiessen for "living in a selective world."

The ex-Bush aide appeared to promote his new book Courting Disaster, which defends and advocates for the administration's CIA's interrogation program. After Thiessen argued that the tactics stopped another terror attack in the U.S. after 9/11, Stewart lectured, "The bombings in Britain, the bombings in Afghanistan, the bombings in a Iraq. It's a selective world that you live in and you must be lovely to live there. Things are not so clear cut."

Comedian Jon Stewart actually called Sarah Palin a genius Wednesday.

As he reviewed her performance on the "Tonight Show" the previous evening, the "Daily Show" host said, "I don't say this to a lot of comics, especially new ones, but if you had a day job, you should quit it." 

The Comedy Central star continued, "Her ability to do this well is just one more example of the genius of Sarah Palin: she can master anything."

Unfortunately, he was less pleased with Mitt Romney's performance on the "Late Show" the same evening: "I think Romney is always going to be Gore to Palin's Bush. He wants it more. He's worked harder for it. He looks the part. But he ain't gettin' it" (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, h/t Right Scoop):

Headline in the “Life” section of Tuesday's USA Today:

Subhead: “Stewart and Colbert give it respect, make it fun.” Lead from reporter Dan Vergano:

Looking for science? Headed for Animal Planet or the Science Channel?

Think again, scientists say: All the cool kids want to sit across from Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert....

 

Comedian Jon Stewart tore apart CNN's Rick Sanchez Monday leading one to believe the "Daily Show" host might be a NewsBusters reader.

On Saturday, we noticed a pathetic performance by Sanchez during that afternoon's coverage of the tsunamis predicted to hit Hawaii after the massive earthquake in Chile.

"By the way, nine meters in English is?" the manic CNNer actually asked a scientist brought on to explain the situation.

Two days later, someone at Comedy Central also noticed Sanchez's absurd behavior, and turned it into a great sketch for Stewart (video embedded below the fold, h/t Story Balloon):

Good Morning America co-host George Stephanopoulos appeared on Tuesday’s Colbert Report and had to deal with questions about his past as a Democratic operative. Comedian Stephen Colbert bluntly explained, “You’re a Democrat, okay? You worked for the Clintons.  I cannot imagine it must have been easy to sit there for the past year and watch Democrats get hammered so mercilessly by the Republicans.”

Colbert jokingly followed-up: “Did you ever want to just jump across the table to one of the Democrats and say, 'Fight back! Fight back, you fools! They’re eating you alive'”? (NewsBusters readers will know that Stephanopoulos has hardly hid his affection for Democrats since joining the show.)

Colbert even quizzed the ABC journalist as to whether taking the morning show job was simply a way for him to become anchor of World News. The comedian grilled, “Is it like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do GMA for a few years and flip the blueberry pancakes and then I get the chair?’ Is there a quid-pro-quo here with you and ABC News?” (Video below the fold - h/t Story Balloon)

The media's hate parade against the former governor of Alaska hit a disgraceful peak Monday night when comedian Stephen Colbert said on national television, "Sarah Palin is a f**king retard."

In a five minute segment bashing the former vice presidential candidate for her remarks at Saturday's National Tea Party convention, as well as her use of crib notes -- surprise! -- the Comedy Central star ended with the controversy surrounding White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's "retard" comment.

After playing a clip of Palin telling Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" that Rush Limbaugh's use of the word was acceptable because it was satire, Colbert concluded, "It is okay to call someone a retard if like Rush you clearly don't mean it" (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript, vulgarity alert):

Greg Gutfeld Friday said comedian Jon Stewart's opinion of Fox News is "nuttier than squirrel poop."

"Stewart's got to stop whining about Fox tilting to the right," declared the "Red Eye" host during his Greg-alogue.

This was in response to what the "Daily Show" host said about FNC during his often heated discussion with Bill O'Reilly Wednesday. 

Much of his criticism did not sit well with the outspoken Gutfeld who marvelously concluded, "Fox News only looks right because everything else is left" (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript):

Jon Stewart Thursday cited a NewsBusters headline that used the word "Rips" to describe what he did to Rachel Maddow in a "Daily Show" segment three weeks ago.

In a sketch mocking recent blog headlines involving him, the Comedy Central star referred to how NewsBusters and others depicted his January 14 response to Maddow's use of the Haitian earthquake disaster as an excuse to criticize former President George W. Bush. 

NewsBusters reported this on January 16 with the headline "Stewart Rips Maddow for Using Haitian Disaster to Bash Bush, Maddow Foolishly Strikes Back."

The "Daily Show" host referred to this twice in Thursday night's segment called "The Blogs Must Be Crazy" (video embedded below the fold, relevant sections at 1:06 and 2:52):

A heated debate about the political leaning of Fox News happened Wednesday when "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart was invited on the "O'Reilly Factor."

"What you have been able to do, you and Dr. Ailes, have been able to mainstream conservative talk radio," said the Comedy Central star.

"Don't give me I'm a Republican shrill," countered host Bill O'Reilly. "That's bull."

The pair also battled over Fox host Glenn Beck with O'Reilly finishing the interview by saying, "If you think that Beck shills for the Republican Party, you're out of your mind."

After the discussion, Dennis Miller reviewed the segment saying, "I think he's one of the most compelling TV presences in the last 20 years," fascinatingly adding "the two state-of-the-art shows for information and entertainment in America right now are your show and Jon's show" (videos of both segments embedded below the fold with partial transcripts, h/t Hot Air):

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz believes comedian Jon Stewart is an icon to many journalists.

"[E]specially those in television who sometimes copy his quick-cut editing techniques," wrote Kurtz in his column Monday.

But that's not all.

Kurtz sees the "Daily Show" host as "a pop-culture bellweather," and feels his recent attacks on Barack Obama are a significant sea change. Last week Stewart went after the President's use of a teleprompter at a Virginia elementary school.

As a result, the clearly left-leaning Comedy Central star's "barbs are generating partisan buzz" (h/t Jennifer Rubin):

Comedian Jon Stewart Thursday mocked MSNBC's Chris Matthews for his absurd comment about having forgotten President Obama was black during the previous night's State of the Union address.

"If you watched the speech, and afterwards just wanted to have your mind blown, you gotta stick with Chris Matthews," teased the "Daily Show" host.

After showing the video of Matthews' foolish remark, Stewart quipped, "You know what else you might have forgotten? You're miked!"

Once the audience stopped laughing, the Comedy Central star said, "I swear to God, this guy's one scotch away from being Ron Burgundy" (video embedded below the fold with transcript):

I guess it takes a liberal comedian to bring a liberal buffoon to his senses, for a day after Comedy Central's Jon Stewart scolded Keith Olbermann for his disgraceful rants against Senator-elect Scott Brown, the "Countdown" host apologized.

After showing the full clip of Stewart's fabulous smackdown on the previous night's "Daily Show," the MSNBCer said Friday:

"You're right. I have been a little over the top lately. Point taken. Sorry."

Unfortunately, the apology was to Stewart, not to the object of Olbermann's repeated attacks (video below the fold with partial transcript):

Comedian Jon Stewart Thursday absolutely tore Keith Olbermann apart for his disgraceful rants against Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown.

As NewsBusters reported here, here, and here, the "Countdown" host this week repeatedly attacked the Senator-elect as "an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against woman and against politicians with whom he disagrees."

On Thursday, the "Daily Show" host scolded Olbermann for his atrocious behavior saying, "I think that's the harshest description of anyone I've ever heard uttered on MSNBC, and that includes descriptions of the guys that star in your weekend prison program."

Maybe even more shocking, Stewart ripped the MSNBCer for attacking other conservatives including Roger Ailes, the owner of Fox News.

Better still, the Comedy Central star surprisingly defended Michelle Malkin stating that Olbermann's October 13 comments regarding her sounded "a lot more like violence against women than anything Scott Brown ever said" (video embedded below the fold with transcribed highlights, h/t Story Balloon):

Comedian Jon Stewart on Thursday mocked MSNBC's Rachel Maddow for using the tragedy in earthquake-rattled Haiti to bash former President George W. Bush.

Not appreciating the ribbing, Maddow foolishly responded on her own program Friday proving once and for all that liberal media members love Jon Stewart -- as long as his target is conservatives, that is.

Precipitating the spat was the MSNBCer on Wednesday politicizing the growing Haitian crisis by saying, "All of that central to what the Obama administration says it wants to do differently than what Bush and Cheney did."

The "Daily Show" host marvelously noted, "Not the right time." Stewart concluded by mocking Maddow's audience, "Congratulations MSNBC viewers -- you're on the right side of this terrible, terrible tragedy" (videos of Stewart's segment and Maddow's response embedded below the fold): 

Regular viewers of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart are accustomed by now to the verbal battles that ensue when Stewart brings conservative guests on his show. The guests usually leave with a bit of egg on their faces, and Stewart comes off as the hard hitting, divisive and sarcastic critic.

But viewers were treated to a rare dose of sincerity and intelligent debate on Monday, when Stewart hosted former legal counsel for the Bush Justice Department John Yoo. Following up on what was a meaningful and intelligent interview Monday night, Stewart apologized to his audience on Tuesday for not being his usual cutthroat self, and daring to discuss issues in a civilized tone.

Yoo and Stewart duked it out for almost 30 minutes (videos below the fold), but the host did not manage to get the better of Yoo, who is now infamous among liberal circles for writing the legal briefs justifying expanded executive powers to combat terrorism under the previous administration.

Stewart ended the segment with a very uncharacteristic--given his tendency to demonize conservatives--call for civility in the public discourse (brief partial transcript after videos):