Chocolate Jesus fallout

Many of you may have heard about the whole "Chocolate Jesus" kerfuffle last week, and I didn't blog on it because, quite frankly, I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I mean, I've seen patently and intentionally offensive blasphemy in "art" before, such as "Piss Christ" and the Virgin Mary splattered with elephant dung. This chocolate thing was, in my humble opinion, no big whoop.

However, something I did notice (and apparently others did, too) was that CNN and its brethren in the MSM were more than willing to report and show something that many Christians found to be offensive...yet lacked the same kind of "journalistic integrity" (oxymoron, I know) when it came to those silly Mohammed cartoons that got the weirdbeards of the world in a dander.

Recall when CNN said the following?

"CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons in respect for Islam."

"CNN is not showing the negative caricatures of the likeness of Prophet Mohammed because the network believes its role is to cover the events surrounding the publication of the cartoons while not unnecessarily adding fuel to the controversy itself."

How did the others in the MSM explain away their lack of desire to publish the Mohammed cartoons?

"They wouldn't meet our standards for what we publish in the paper," said Leonard Downie, Jr., executive editor of The Washington Post, which ran a front-page story on the issue Friday, but has not published the cartoons. "We have standards about language, religious sensitivity, racial sensitivity and general good taste." ...
At USA Today, deputy foreign editor Jim Michaels offered a similar explanation. "At this point, I'm not sure there would be a point to it," he said about publishing the cartoons. "We have described them, but I am not sure running it would advance the story." Although he acknowledged that the cartoons have news value, he said the offensive nature overshadows that.

The Boston Globe, while acknowledging the right of newspapers to print material that may offend, argues that "newspapers ought to refrain from publishing offensive caricatures of Mohammed in the name of the ultimate Enlightenment value: tolerance."

Apparently, "tolerance" and "respect" are not to be extended to Christianity. Thanks for the clarification, MSM.