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This past season, NBC aired a short-lived TV series called "The Book of Daniel" as one of its prime-time offerings. The series revolved around an drug-addicted Episcopal priest with an alcoholic wife, a gay son, and a drug-dealing teenaged daughter.

At the office, the priest's lesbian secretary is sleeping with his sister-in-law. The priest, Daniel Webster, (hence the clever title) would have periodic discussions with 'Jesus', who when asked to do something for Daniel in one scene, replied, "Who do you think I am? God?"

NBC defended its offering as a 'serious drama about Christian people and the Christian faith'. It wrapped the series in the 1st Amendment and aired the series over the objections of the many network affiliates who refused to carry it.

After airing only three episodes, NBC unceremoniously dumped the show. The media started screaming 'censorship' by the religious right. The fact is, by the third airing, all the program's sponsors had pulled out. Not because of threats or violence. Because of economics. The show was awful and nobody watched it.

There were no riots, although the program was offensive in the extreme. Not a single Hollywood producer was harmed. Not a single television station was burned down. Nobody supported it, and it died. End of story.

Kevin Reilly, NBC Entertainment president, said the network's reluctance to order more episodes had more to do with the series' sluggish ratings performance than controversy.

He added, unapologetically, "We're going to continue to put on creative programming, regardless of any possible controversy."

NBC was among the national news outlets who declined to publish the 'Satanic Cartoons' saying it was exercising 'editorial restraint' out of 'respect for Islam'.

NBC produced "The Book of Daniel" for American consumption. It depicted an 'average' [in NBC's view] American Christian family. It admitted the series was intended to be 'edgy' [offensive] and was canceled for economic, rather than social-sensitivity reasons.

Eight in ten Americans self-identify as 'Christians' culturally, if not in the spiritual sense.

So it logically follows that the series was intended to offend a large segment of Christianity and exploit the controversy to capture a large enough market share from the other 20% to sustain the series.

By airing the series, NBC demonstrated that it not only had no respect for its viewers, but also that it had no respect for Christianity. It exploited Christian sensibilities in an effort to make money. It was simply a failed marketing experiment. There will be more, promises NBC's Kevin Reilly.

There is one 'possible' controversy that NBC won't get too creative with.

There won't be any fall offering featuring Ahmed the jihadi, struggling with the problems of having stoned his gay son, drug-dealing daughter and drunk wife to death after talking it over on his camel with a hip, slightly dim-witted Mohammed.

We won't see Ahmed getting advice from Mohammed about the most effective shrapnel to pack around the C4 in his suicide vest, hear Mohammed make off-color cracks about all those waiting virgins in Paradise, or shrug his shoulders and ask, "Who do you think I am? A prophet?"

The main reason? Because nobody at NBC wants to have to go into hiding with the families as the price of exercising 'freedom of speech'.

There will be more 'serious dramas' about 'Christian people and Christian faith' like Hollywood's "Saved" or NBC's "Book of Daniel".

But have you noticed that whenever Hollywood produces an action movie about terrorism, the terrorists are all from Eastern Europe?

Even those that connect terror and Islam are careful to note at least once, if not several times, that Islam is a religion of peace and love and that the terrorists are an aberration.

The mainstream media claim that it suppressed the cartoons out of 'respect for Islam' adds a whole new dimension to the term hypocritical, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.

Mainstream Islam has spoken: "The beatings will continue until morale improves." And the mainstream media got the message, loud and clear.

It offered its submission to Islamic law, its admission of dhimmitude, and, to the Islamic world, its expression of loyalty.

But in an act of self-delusion, it is trying to seize the high moral ground, claiming 'self-restraint' out of 'respect for Islam' instead of submission -- a distinction without a difference.

It is a truism that a the popular media is reflective of its audience -- that is why it is called the 'popular' press. It is equally true that submission is not an act, it is a process.

And that process is well underway.

The Omega Letter Daily Intelligence Digest, Volume 53, Issue 13

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