Catching Up on The "Christmas Wars"

I've tried to stay away from this as the issue is so incredibly stupid that one doesn't want to confer any legitimacy but, since, it's been all over the mainstream media, I'll try to bring you up to date on what many are calling the "Christmas Wars."

It started primarily when Fox News Nutcase-in-Chief, Bill O'Reilly and his able assistant loon, John Gibson, began a public campaign attacking what they've pumped up as a "secular war on Christmas." The two have been having a grand old time blasting companies greeting customers by saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" and similar grievous offenses that they try to sell as Christmas bashing. Gibson, host of The Big Story with John Gibson on Fox, has even published a book called The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought – and, no, I'm not kidding.

I'm guessing they test-marketed "Gay people hate Christmas" as this season's divisive issue and found it didn't sell to the Religious Right as effectively. Well, I'm happy to announce that the lunacy and hypocrisy of this is tumbling down all around them.

John Gibson appears to be in the middle of an ongoing breakdown as we see in a Wednesday meltdown on Fox News. In this one, Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State almost makes Gibson cry by calling him on his lies about American communities that are allegedly against Christmas.

Boston: You guys are rich. This stuff was made up. I called school superintendents and said you know O'Reilly...said you can't have cookies at your school...

Gibson interrupting: Rob-Rob-Rob, stop right there-Rob-ROB-STOP-RIGHT-THERE!

Boston: No you're wrong John, I'm not gonna stop...

Gibson: Yea you are, because the incidents in my book are not lies--if you're calling me a liar let's go one on one of it. --Hey Rob! Straighten up, you just called me a liar-Back up your charges--(Gary-pipe down)--Rob, you just called me a liar!--I did not say that!---(Gary, Stop!)

Gibson: If you're calling me a liar on that, you're going to get sued next.

For some reason, calling these conservatives "liar" seems to send them into a rage, which is a bit like a hooker getting mad for being called promiscuous. The "Gary" he's telling to back off is Gary McCaleb of The Alliance Defense Fund who's trying to jump in and help him against Boston.

The Carpetbagger Report gives the lowdown on how Gibson's tantrum had only just begun. Due to a personal friendship with Mr. Boston, they were able to get the story on Gibson's follow-up hissy fit via a phone call to Boston. An excerpt:

"A couple of hours after Gibson's show ended and Rob went home, Gibson's producer called Rob's cell, saying, "John's really upset that you called him a liar." The producer asked if Rob would be willing to appear on Gibson's radio show for Round Two. Rob, who managed to keep his cool while Gibson became unhinged, said he would.

"Before they could schedule an appearance, Gibson got on the phone to start screaming again. Rob, who does not suffer fools kindly, told Gibson the truth — explaining calmly that Gibson is a clown, Fox News is a joke, and their nonsense is demagoguery."

Please go to The Carpetbagger Report to read the rest.

Then we have good old Bill O'Reilly, who seems to come up with new and improved ways to act the fool on a regular basis. It's gotta be rough being one of the primary people promoting the bogus war on Christmas and then having to publicly apologize for just being flat-out wrong. But here's O'Reilly doing exactly that, after it turns out he was wrong about a previous charge he had made about a Plano, Texas school district he claimed had ruled that students could not wear the colors red and green during the holiday season.

While he doesn't apologize to the school district he defamed, here's a clip of O'Reilly on the invaluable Crooks and Liars giving as much of a retraction as you can expect from Fox News.

Finally, Fox News' own online store is adding to the hypocrisy and embarrassment by selling a stunning line of "Holiday," rather than "Christmas," ornaments.

Media Matters has the story about how Fox's goods really quite contradict what they claim to be so upset about. For example, they have a lovely set of Fox News and No Spin Zone bulbs sold as "holiday" ornaments but – hey, wait just a minute here! – when liberal bloggers started making fun of them, they changed their store language to reflect their more Christmas-centric philosophy.

Here's the old along with the new:

Before they were ridiculed, they were selling "Holiday" ornaments...



Then, after their two-faced approach was called, they suddenly became "Christmas" ornaments...



Wow, life's tough when you work at "Hypocrites R' Us, The Republican Superstore." Always a lie to explain and always hypocrisy to defend. Better them than us, huh?

And a merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Holiday/Festivus/Whatever to us all!