Catholic League and Bill Donohue campaign against Jon Stewart

Bill Donohue
Bill Donohue

Bill Donohue

On April 16, Jon Stewart showed a sexually explicit picture of a naked woman with a religious symbol during the Daily Show.  The Catholic League and its president, Bill Donohue, demanded an apology, but Stewart refused. The Catholic League and Donohue are now campaigning against him.

As Stewart showed the sexually graphic picture, he talked about the “War on Women”.  Afterwards, the Catholic League called it "an unprecedented assault on Christian sensibilities" to show a woman with a manger over her vagina.

The Catholic League and Donohue are asking sponsors to pull their advertising off the Daily Show.  They are also threatening a public campaign against Stewart and his show, with a lengthy public relations campaign.  They are not ruling out a boycott also.

If that doesn’t work, we can guarantee that his reputation will never be the same.

They stated that the goal of all of this is to make Stewart apologize for the sexually graphic depiction of a woman and a religious symbol.  Their plans include contacting Kraft and other sponsors, who advertised during the Daily Show on both April 17 and 18.

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.

Adding to all these efforts to make Stewart apologize for the picture, the Catholic League stated they would contact numerous other religious organizations and show them the picture, along with Stewart’s remarks.  They even captured the picture of the naked woman with the manger over her vagina and linked to it on their site as they declared to ruin his reputation.

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.

The Catholic League not only labelled Stewart’s actions as misogynistic, but also “the most vulgar expression of hate speech ever aired on TV” and said, “his incivility cannot go unanswered”.

WARNING:  The video below, showing said picture, shortly after the 4:40 mark, is very sexually graphic and maybe offensive to some viewers, not just those with “Christian sensibilities”.

Mriana

Mriana is a humanist and the author of "A Source of Misery". She has two grown sons and raises cats. She enjoys writing, reading, science, philosophy, psychology, and other subjects. Mriana is also an animal lover, who cares for their welfare as living beings, who are part of the earth. She is a huge Star Trek fan in a little body.

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  • Dr.Biggles

    "If that doesn’t work, we can guarantee that his reputation will never be the same."It'll be much, much better, for sure, hahahaha!

  • WIDTAP

     "an unprecedented assault on Christian sensibilities"

    Unlike, say, what Coptic Christians are experiencing in Egypt.

    Is it not sufficient to say the graphic was tasteless? If you want to persuade Jon Stewart not to use such a juxtaposition of images to make a point about Fox News outrage, how will false victumhood and overreaching outrage bring him to your point of view, and get the apology you say you seek?

    Or is the purpose to gain notoriety and to attempt to exercise a political power with the cloak of Catholic faith?

    • http://www.houseofbetazed.com Mriana

      I agree, while the picture was over the top, I understand the point Stewart was making and even though the pic was a bit much for me, and probably others who are not Xian, I don't think Stewart needs to apologize for it.  I really think the Catholic League is making far too much of this, esp when they need to clean up their own yard of far worse things.

      • Deborah_B

        I thought he made a great point.  Christian sensibilities?  What right wing Christians watch Stewart in the first place, unless to find things that they want to demonize?  Was the picture tasteless?  Probably — but at the same time, I don't really think he needs to apologize for it.

        • http://www.houseofbetazed.com Mriana

          Well, that's why I added what I did to the warning.  I thought his point was good too, esp after I got over my shock and watched his video a couple more times.  I never once thought he should apologize for it and sometimes we need to go over the top to make a point too, even if it is tasteless and disturbs people's sensibilities- Xian or otherwise. It was not at all misogynistic, but instead was pointing out the misogyny of the Catholic Church and other religious sects.  I esp liked his Advent birth control.  lol

  • Deist1737

    Donohue, the Catholic League, all Christians and all Jews should apologize for the Bible's anti-God, anti-women and pro-genocide teachings such as Deuteronomy 22:24 which claims God said to kill women by stoning who are rape victims if the rape occurred in a city. Or how about the anti-God and anti-women ideas promoted in Leviticus 27:3-7 which has God playing the part of a shallow soulless materialist placing financial worth on people with women always being worth less than men? And we can't forget the genocidal Moses ordering the Israeli army to kill all the women and boys but to save the virgin "women children" for themselves in Numbers 31:15-18. These "holy" scriptures are much worse than anything that ever appeared on the Daily Show. And at least the Daily Show covers news the established media doesn't cover and most of what it carries makes people think.

    Progress! Bob Johnson
    http://www.deism.com

    • http://www.houseofbetazed.com Mriana

      I agree and the use of Kraft in this mess, as I passively tried to point out, is totally ridiculous, esp after the nursing baby ad.  Stewart, although he was over the top, was making a point about women's health and the War on Women, Kraft was not, even if the ad was not suppose to get out to the public.  I don't see the Catholic League up in arms about Kraft's ad, but mix religion into the picture and they go nuts, despite the message.  They aren't complaining about misogyny or hate speech, they are up in arms about the use of a religious symbol in a naked picture of a woman, in particularly the use of the symbol to cover her vagina.  It is only an attempt to accuse Stewart of blasphemy, without the use of the word, and hope to appeal to others by not using that word.  It is nothing more than attempt to impose a form of "Blasphemy Laws".  Despite not agreeing with showing such a picture and thinking it was over the top, I think Stewart needs to stand his ground, no matter what, because what the Catholic League is attempting to do is charge Stewart with Blasphemy and make him coward to the Religious Reich.  Anything else concerning the picture is superfluous in this case, because it is nothing more than religious bullying and an attempt to control the masses as they impose and enforce religious dogma.

  • Kavalto

    Mr.Donohue is an embarrassment to Catholics everywhere firstly where does he think he has the moral grounds to complain about a joke. That Jon Stewart used to critize Fox News for being hypocrites whilst he defended the abuse of children by catholic priests ?
    And calling the victims "professional victims" when it is Bill and his rage-prone league that are the professional victims. As far as boycotting Jon Stewart I do hope Mr.Donohue see's that he is making a fool out of himself and gives up his frivolous and ultimately petty campaign for an apology. In the end Bill Donohue is a sad little bigot and sorry excuse for a human being/man who thinks he is better then everybody else.

     

  • joe paterno

    It's really easy to dislike Bill Donohue.

    • Deborah_B

       The only picture that I can recall of him where he was actually smiling was when his Catholic League put up a billboard to counter the American Atheists' "it's a myth" billboard at the Lincoln Tunnel the Christmas before last.  Granted, I haven't been on a "search for a happy Bill," but in reporting on him for a number of years now, I honestly cannot recall him appearing to be happy or content.  He gives me the impression of being very angry.