Freedom of Speech and Violent Extortion

so I've been pondering this all day, what with the Comedy Central censoring of Mohammed, etc. I can sort of see both sides of the issue, but I think maybe the problem is over-simplification.
On the one hand, by bowing to the implicit demands of unspecified muslim extremists, it would seem that Comedy Central has now established a path for focused terrorist tactics to be used for specific goal achievement. On the other hand, it isn't necessarily the job of corporations to be the ones setting the standard for free speech. That should really be individuals and the courts first, and then the corporations should reflect the desires of their constituent owners and obey the laws that govern them.

I guess the big thing for me is that freedom of speech is a sort of flag-waving cover-all phrase that is by no means a cut-and-dry issue. To be free to say what we want is important, yes. And we need to defend that right, especially when it comes to media censorship and the threats of special-interest groups that try to block specific information's release. However, that is not to say that we need to jump up and go to battle for every little thing, either. If we freak out about every little issue that could possibly be construed as an issue of free speech, we risk becoming the boys who cried wolf, so to speak; which is to say, by picking our battles we gain the momentum of supporting freedom of speech for a purpose. If we fight for the ability of people to say things that will hurt others or cause serious problems, are we really helping? By blindly shouting "freedom of speech!" we could very easily be doing much more harm, by associating freedom of speech with the protection of hate-mongering, special-interest media, and racial/religious/nationalistic propaganda.

To be fair, we cannot shut out such things, either, because they have the right to air their concerns and opinions, however misguided the majority may think those beliefs are. I think the most important thing for us to remember is that whatever our position, we always have a moral and cultural responsibility to think about the effects of our actions. Whether or not Comedy Central made the right decision in censoring the image is very much open to debate, and I don't pretend to know the right answer. I prefer to focus on the fact that at least somebody in a position of power might be taking moral responsibility into account when making decisions in the public domain.