From: James Frazier, Cedar Falls, IA
I must confess, that despite my love of “South Park,” I find the recent attacks against Tom Cruise to be vicious and wrong-headed. Let us consider that there is NO solid proof that Cruise had the episode shelved. Even further, what if he did? No freedom of speech has been violated; the episode has been aired before, it is easily accessable online. Unless my poli. sci. classes have been leaving something out, the First Amendment does not guarantee that people are entitled to having their television shows aired on Comedy Central. Cruise is perfectly entitled to pressure Paramount not to air the show again.
What troubles me most about this is how people believe that everything they like deserves protection from those who disagree. Certainly, the First Amendment entitles you to hold unpopular or potentially dangerous opinions, but it does NOT grant you special protection from consequences, such as the influence of rich and powerful men who do not like being called homosexual followers of a stupid religion. “Trapped in the Closet” was a great episode, but I shed no tears for Parker and Stone if these rumors are true.
