Bleeping Muhammad, part 2

Big Journalism’s pseudonymous Frank Ross observes that the sound you’re not hearing is the media, holed up in their towers along Sixth Avenue and across the street from the old Show World Center porn palace on Eighth Avenue, noisily rising to the defense of Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the South Park creators who recently upset the tender Muslim sensibilities of this guy:

“That would be Zachary Chesser,” Ross explains, “or as he currently styles himself, Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee. This 20-year-old from Fairfax, Va., trolling away on his blog, was able to get Comedy Central to censor one of the most popular and lucrative shows in its lineup merely by suggesting that Stone and Parker might meet the same fate that befell Theo Van Gogh when he ‘outraged’ Muslim sensibilities.”
It’s an outrageous story that has generally not received the attention it deserves. Today Ross Douthat devotes his New York Times column to it. Douthat’s column is too complacent, but at least it covers the relevant territory and brings the story to the attention of a wide audience that might otherwise not see it.
Andrew Malcolm’s new partner at the Los Angeles Times Top of the Ticket blog.covers a companion story. Jimmy Orr notes that the outcry from Comedy Central’s decision to censor the South Park episode with depictions of Muhammad in costume last week led a Seattle cartoonist to fight back by declaring May 20 Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.
A funny thing happened on the way to May 20. The cartoonist has canceled Everybody Draw Muhammad Day due to a prior engagement.