O'Reilly's Lies about Christmas

Only an brain-dead idiot would take most of what O'Reilly says seriously.

Luckily, that seems to be his target demographic.

I guess his philosophy is that if reality doesn't conform to your prejudices, just lie about it.

Next up: Brayton takes on O'Reilly at a book convention. Fisticuffs ensue.

RE: Stamps

Not only that, but the secular stamps that I saw this year were cookie stamps, and they feature an angel cookie, so they're not even secular!

Goddamn, OReilly is an idiot. Thirty seconds on the USPS site would tell him that the Post Office has Christmas stamps.

I actually watched one of the episodes where O'Reilly was spouting off. It was about Plano, Texas. I later saw it rebutted on Media Matters. I have a prejudice that people are more likely misinformed than malicious, but the unending list of "mistatements" from O'Reilly has me believing that he knows what he is doing and does not care.

I thought Media Matters was a conservative organization? What are they doing preying on O'Reilly?

Here is the article that I was talking about. And here is a quote from the "About Us" section of their website.

Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

If my memory serves me correctly, wasn't at least one of the early crusades started because the Constantinopolitans were saying "Seasons Greetings" in December while the western Church was saying "Merry Christmas." Rome was thoroughly incensed and sent soldiers across the Bosporus to plunder, destroy and distribute appropriately worded Christmas greetings. So the historical precedents for this "War on Christmas" are really sobering.

Of course my memory may be a little off. It was either the Christmas greeting or a small creedal difference, I forget...

Over at Letters to Romenesko, there's a good piece from Charlie Reina, former Fox News producer, about the phony War on Christmas, which he blames in part on PC, while handing FOX the lion's share of the blame.

But first let's look at what political correctness is, and is not, in this context. Wishing your customers or co-workers, "Happy holidays," isn't p/c; it's common sense. Try saying, "Merry Christmas, happy Hannukah, a joyous Kwanzaa and a prosperous New Year" every time you leave the office, and before long they won't let you back in. But taking something that's recognized everywhere - by people of all religious beliefs -- as a Christmas tree and renaming it a "holiday tree" is political correctness, pure and simple. It adds nothing, reaches out to no one. It's as offensive as it would be to call a Menorah a "festive candelabra," or Santa Claus "Jolly old Good-guy Nick." Granted, as a cause for war, this holiday p/c is no Pearl Harbor. But in its own naïve way, it provides the warmongers with just the ammunition they want.

Reina brings up something that is obvious but that most of us probably hadn't recognized as such.

But what really separates Fox from the competition is its unabashed use of religion as a divisive weapon. Common sense -- and common courtesy -- have long dictated that personal religious beliefs be kept out of news reporting unless the story at hand involves religion. But on Fox, it's not uncommon for an anchor to raise the issue of a guest's religion, or lack thereof, a' propos of nothing. The most glaring example I can recall is a 2002 interview with a guest who had been cited for his charitable acts. At the end of the discussion the anchor said (paraphrasing here), "So I understand you're an atheist." The guest acknowledged that this was so. "Well," said he anchor, "we're out of time now, but I'd be glad to debate you anytime on the existence of God," and, with that, ended the segment.

A few hours after Reina's letter was posted, Fox's Director of Media Relations responded. This is what he wrote, in its entirety:

From PAUL SCHUR, director of media relations, Fox News: Charlie's rants [below] about Fox News are both predictable and sad. For his sake, we hope he stops howling at the moon and moves on with his life. We wish him well in his current role making cabinets out of his garage.

Now that's a class act, isn't it? Fox News, home of the substance-free argumentum ad hominem.

The origin of the O'Reilly story was apparently a November article by J. Grant Swank, Jr.:
http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_10492.shtml
This in turn reflects the information in an ADF article on December 15, 2004, about their lawsuit against the Plano ISD which alleged the facts quoted by O'Reilly.

This year the Plano ISD showed more finesse:
"But Abernathy said the letter sent does not ban red, green, yellow or purple, but the letter asks students to bring items for a winter break party that reflect winter and snow, which is white. The letter asks for student contributions of white napkins, sugar cookies, juice boxes and Hershey's kisses for the parties. "

They are effectively celebrating Winter Solstice (a pagan holiday). Celebrating "winter and snow" in Texas at Christmas is a little inane. It is clear to an objective observer that they do have a problem with Christmas and are trying to legally avoid recognizing the holiday.

O'Reilly's literal facts are not true this year. But the spirit of "No Red and Green" lives on.