Earlier this month, a group of Religious Right leaders banded together to form a group called Citizens Against Religious Bigotry for the sole purpose of launching a campaign against a proposed Comedy Central show about Jesus Christ called "JC."
The group claimed the show, which is still only in the development stage, was blasphemous and bigoted and so they set about targeting potential advertisers by warning them not to even think about supporting the show.
And according to organizers, this campaign has been a monumental success and so they are declaring victory:
Citizens Against Religious Bigotry (CARB) today announced victory in convincing advertisers not to sponsor the anti-Christian “JC” comedy that Comedy Central announced was in development.
Members of the coalition wrote to more than 300 corporations that had sponsored Comedy Central programming in the past. The letters explained the nature of the program and stated how offensive the “JC” project would be, not only to the 83 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Christians, but also to many non-Christians including those who signed the petition. Coalition members then followed up with phone calls to the advertisers, speaking directly with representatives from most of the corporations that received the original letter.
Not one single sponsor indicated their intention to buy advertising time on the “JC” program if the program ever made it to Comedy Central’s air.
Due to the success, the outreach effort has been suspended effective the close of business this past Friday, June 18th.
“After an intense period of writing and then calling hundreds of sponsors, the results are clear. In fact the verdict is unanimous: There is no advertiser support for anti-Christian bigotry such as that embraced in Comedy Central’s ‘JC’ project. The sponsors understand what the programming department at Comedy Central does not: Religious bigotry is bad business,” said L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Media Research Center and the founder of CARB.
“With literally zero advertiser support for this program, the only reason Comedy Central would put it on their broadcast schedule is in an effort to offend Christianity and Christians. There is no valid business reason for airing ‘JC.’
“In light of this demonstration of overwhelming success, the Coalition’s advertiser outreach will stand down. In the event that any advertiser changes its mind, that advertiser and its executives will be publicly called to account for supporting anti-Christian bigotry,” concluded Bozell.
So, has Citizens Against Religious Bigotry really managed to kill off "JC"?
I guess that remains to be seen ... as does the effectiveness of their threats should Comedy Central ultimately decide to put the show on the air.
