CNSNews.com) - Some of the people who tuned into public radio station KCPW in St. Lake City, Utah, recently weren't laughing at the satire poking fun at a Mike Huckabee "family recipe." More than a few of them, in fact, were outraged by the "Huck and the Eucharist" skit, which aired Jan. 7 on the "Fair Game with Faith Salie" program.

The transcript, in part, said: "Try this Huckabee family favorite. Deep-Fried Body of Christ - boring holy wafers no more. Take one Eucharist. Preferably post transubstantiation. Deep-fry in fat, not vegetable oil, ladies, until crispy. Serve piping hot."

Many sent e-mails to Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. "At that point, we decided to issue a press release to 500 media outlets around the country," Donohue told Cybercast News Service.

The press release said the Catholic League was lodging a formal complaint with Ed Sweeney, general manager of KCPW - who also was the recipient of more than 500 angry e-mails in the days following the airing of the program.

Public Radio International (PRI), which produces the show and then distributes it to KCPW and other public radio stations around the country, pulled the content, and Faith Salie issued an apology on her program on Thursday.

"It happened, and it's unfortunate," Sweeney told Cybercast News Service, adding that public radio stations don't know what the content of programs are until they air. "I myself am a practicing Catholic, and I sleep well at night."

Donohue said he was satisfied with the apology and that the content was pulled, but the league's press release launched a whirlwind of reaction in cyberspace, from the multiple responses to KCPW's blog by the station's news director, Bryan Schott, to a host of religious sites.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) received $393 million in federal tax dollars for fiscal year 2008. In 2007, according to a spokesman for CPB, the agency gave a grant of $200,000 to the producers of "Fair Game with Faith Salie" for research and development of the show. KCPW, like all public radio stations, receives tax funding through CPB.

PRI did not respond to Cybercast News Service's request for comment, despite multiple calls made to the organization's communications director.

Donohue said that, as a Catholic, he felt he must accept the apology and move on. But he added that this kind of mocking of the Christian faith is "fair game," even on programs funded by the CPB, which includes in its online mission statement the following: "The Corporation is accountable to the public for investing its funds in programs and services which are educational, innovative, locally relevant, and reflective of America's common values and cultural diversity."

"We've been talking about this for years," said Donohue, who has been president of the Catholic League since 1993. "It would have been regarded as positively intolerant if it had been written about blacks, Jews, or Muslims."

He blames much of the defamation of Christians on the people in the entertainment, publishing, and academic fields, which have significant influence on popular culture, he said.

"These are the generators of ideas with a decidedly secular outlook and who are clearly hostile toward Christianity, and particularly Roman Catholics," Donohue said.

One of the Web sites that saw a flurry of reaction to the controversy was www.getreligion.org. Syndicated columnist Terry Mattingly wrote on his blog about the Huckabee skit, and close to 50 people chimed in. Most said that they found the show's transcript insulting to Catholics.

Still others questioned whether such satire about other religions would make the cut on public radio.

Mattingly also wondered in his blog if all the debate about the "Fair Game" content shouldn't have caused another kind of response from public radio.

"And will NPR do a straight national news story about this controversy?" Mattingly wrote. "Just asking."