Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:
Jon Stewart refused to apologize last night for the unprecedented assault on Christian sensibilities he launched on April 16. In that episode, “The Daily Show” featured a naked woman with her legs spread and a nativity scene ornament placed between her legs; with the picture on the screen, Stewart laughed at what he called the “vagina manger.” To see the picture, click here. **Warning: Explicit Content**
Our effort against Stewart includes asking his most consistent sponsors to pull their advertising (if necessary, we are not ruling out a boycott of their products), and a lengthy public relations campaign. The goal? To get him to apologize. If that doesn’t work, we can guarantee that his reputation will never be the same.
Today we will contact Kraft, one of whose products, MiO Energy, was one of the five sponsors that advertised on both the April 17 and April 18 episodes. Moreover, we will contact those on our “Allied Organizations” list (over two days) to join this campaign. They will be asked to contact Steve Albani, Senior VP of Comedy Central Communications, and Kraft.
This is just the beginning. Over the next several weeks, we will contact every major Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Mormon and Muslim leader and organization in the nation; they will be sent the picture, along with Stewart’s remarks. We will contact Viacom (which owns Comedy Central, home to “The Daily Show”) making sure that all board members and senior management know about Stewart’s anti-Christian and grossly misogynist attack. We will take out ads in newspapers, etc. We are not going away.
What Jon Stewart did ranks with the most vulgar expression of hate speech ever aired on television. His incivility cannot go unanswered.
Contact Steve Albani, Senior VP Comedy Central Communications: steve.albani@cc.com
