Say Anything Blog

Dave, I understand that you don’t care about the statement of “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” and that’s fine, and what I believe to be is your valid opinion (one that I do not share, but still valid).  We differ in that I am a Christian, you are not, and Christmas is the celebration of Christ’s birth.  To argue that point would be foolish; I have my belief, you have your belief, and I don’t think any amount of debate will change either of us.
My point of view (outside of the religious aspect) is that Christmas is a federal holiday; a holiday that I, as a government employee, get a day off from work (well, I’m supposed to get the day off).  That is not the case for other Holidays during the month of December.  I do not believe that stores should be required to say “Merry Christmas,” but I do think it is quite odd that they aren’t specifically recognizing the federal holiday.

To the main part of your post (or what I think is the main part of your post):

I like to watch the O’reilly Factor.  I used to watch it at least twice a week during my lunch break, but after day light savings (we don’t celebrate that holiday *humor* here in Korea), the show is on an hour later and I cannot watch it.  Anyway, Bill uses a lot of sarcasm that cannot be caught by the written word.  I guarantee that when he said

“Put your holiday tree in ‘The No Spin Zone’ with this silver glass ‘O’Reilly Factor’ ornament.”

he was using sarcasm.

It’s always difficult to find sarcasm in the written word.

I’ve always thought that O’Reilly was a bit of an arrogant ass.  His book..."Who’s Looking Out For You?” Give me a break.

I’m looking out for myself, falafel boy.

As for the whole Christmas controversy, I think it cuts both ways.  There are people who get ticked off when you do dare to say “Merry Christmas” to them, and there are others who get ticked off if you don’t say “Christmas” in your Holiday greeting.  Honestly, both sides have points, but I think we’d all be happier if we could just let this one go.

We’re all different.  We all have different beliefs.  Maybe we shouldn’t sweat the small stuff so much.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Anyway, Bill uses a lot of sarcasm that cannot be caught by the written word. I guarantee that when he said

“Put your holiday tree in ‘The No Spin Zone’ with this silver glass ‘O’Reilly Factor’ ornament.”

he was using sarcasm.

That’s the text from the advertisement on Fox’s website. They wrote it like that to increase their profits by not using a message non-Christians would find excluded them.

My apologies.  It should have been obvious by “the Fox News store features this tagline” statement.  I looked for the item at BillOreilly.com’s “The O’Reilly Christmas Store” located at this website http://www.billoreilly.com/store;jsessionid=EB8FF6A198EEF2C2FB6E30A73B0BAF04
but couldn’t find it (thus, no tag line on the item in his store).  However, he does call his store, as stated above, “The O’Reilly Christmas Store.”

I would think that it is safe to say that Bill O’Reilly and John Gibson don’t have the final say on what the Fox News Channel does (as they are employees of Fox News).  However, I think it would be interesting to know what he has to say about his employer’s use of Holiday Tree instead of Christmas Tree.  Maybe he has already commented on the matter, but because I do not watch it daily, I cannot say. 

I’m going to write him an e-mail, and I’ll post the response (if I get one) here.

Oh yeah, I didn’t even notice this before… The above picture calls it a “Holiday Ornament,” but the website itself does, in fact, call it a Christmas Ornament.  I still think it’s interesting that the Fox News Store calls it a Holiday Tree, but they can’t be accused of deleting Christmas.

Ha ha… They’ve changed it.

I didn’t receive an e-mail response, but as you said, they changed it.  That’s the best response they could give.

[...] Considering that FNC’s Bill O’Reilly and John Gibson have recently made an issue of businesses using the word “Holidays” where they once used the word “Christmas,” on 11/30 a Daily Kos contributor pointed out that the FNC store sells “Holiday Ornaments.” The fact was picked up by lefty media watchdog Media Matters, giving it a wider airing. Before long even conservative blogs were picking up the story, and at some point in the day, FNC changed the item description to call them “Christmas Ornaments”. == Dave at conservative Say Anything doesn’t care what companies say: “To me, it’s just capitalism in action: companies want to maximize their profits, so they avoid any statements that could detract people from going to their stores. However, regardless of how you feel, you have to love this irony.” == In a tongue-in-cheek post, Stop the ACLU points out that FNC’s description of the item still refers to a “holiday tree”: “I am hereby announcing my intent to launch a massive e-mail campaign against FOX News. The only reason I’m not calling for a boycott of their network immediately is because I already don’t watch the other networks, and I do need some news to watch on TV.” Liberal Moxie Grrrl, on FNC: “Apparently they believe ‘Happy Holidays’ doesn’t include Christmas. See? I told you they were f---ing morons.” [...]

Bill O’Reilly’s hypocrisy on this has just been stunning--even worse than his monomania on an issue that, in relation to other problems in the world, hardly warrants a mention.

How has he been hypocritical here?  The Fox News Store is not his store. His store is on his website.

even worse than his monomania on an issue that, in relation to other problems in the world, hardly warrants a mention.

Ha ha! He’s done it again… and this time it’s at his website.

We have a new enemy in the War on Christmas, and his name is Bill O’Reilly.

“Recommended Holiday Gifts"… that damn Commie, just another member of the Christ-hatin’, secular progressive media.

[...] By Pajamas Staff in Los Angeles Saturday, December 17, 2005 A move by Target, Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, Lowes, Jack in the Box and other companies to drop the word “Christmas” from their Christmas promotions, explained by the Los Angeles Times as angering largely Christians, has bloggers of all persuasions debating whether PC is making Americans reluctant to openly acknowledge the holiday. As the Times reported, Lowes suffered a customer backlash over its “holiday trees” and quickly renamed them “Christmas trees,” while 500,000 consumers slammed Target for its “holiday” ornaments and “holiday” stocking stuffers. The issue was further revved up when President George W. Bush sent out Christmas cards that offered safe “holiday” wishes, as law.com notes, but the Supreme Court yesterday held a “Christmas recess party” with an unabashedly entitled “Christmas tree.” Dean Esmay has details on Target’s policy to fire any employee who says Merry Christmas before a customer says it, and Target’s subsequent efforts to undo the PR damage.Some media described the anger as emanating from Christians, but Jews and agnostics jumped into the fray. Burt Prelutsky places blame on his left-leaning Jewish brethren and the ACLU, while Veritas has comedian Jackie Mason and other Jews publicly defending Christmas. My Big Fat Obnoxious Website, an agnostic for Christmas, has Don Feder’s defense of the holiday. Don Singleton discusses overreaction by schools and towns to court rulings—which do not ban Nativity scenes on public land—and notes that a school in Bellevue, Washington banned its own “giving tree. Forepac sees an effort by the right to create a phony issue that distracts from real problems, while Temperantia calls out Fox’s Bill O’Reilly for reporting an incorrect “War on Christmas” tale about a school banning red-and-green. Singleton notes that O’Reilly is being wrongly blamed for another incorrect anecdote uttered not by O’Reilly but by a caller, and Say Anything says that even Fox is peddling online Christmas mugs and gifts as “holiday” items. On a lighter note, INDC has the bad taste posters, The Colossus has the Christmas war satire and Laurence Simon has cute Christmas cats. [...]

Your post was also picked up by PJ Media.

Maybe you should submit more…

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

I see this post was picked up by the The National Journal. Don’t worry, though: just because I’m now writing for the most prestigious magazine in the country, that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop hanging around you little people. Keep your chin up; you’ll get there someday!

SA has been listed on The National Journal’s hotline half a dozen times before.

But congrats anyway.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Dave,

I am a regular O’Reilly viewer, and I do agree the Christmas story has been played quite a bit more than I would like to see, but that doesn’t mean that it is not a huge problem. I understand that you state that you are not Christian, but the founders of this country we’re, which is a long debate that I’m not going to get into now. The only main point that you cleary missed, was when you stated:

“To me, it’s just capitalism in action: companies want to maximize their profits, so they avoid any statements that could detract people from going to their stores.”

The thought may have capitalistic deterants, but it is clearly not working. I’ve seen figures that roughly 80% of this country is Christian, now really, do you think that saying “happy holidays” opposed to “merry christmas” is going to bring in more of that 20% non-christians, or deter more of the 80% christians. I’m not even sure you need a beginning economics class to figure out that one.

d.narloch

do you think that saying “happy holidays” opposed to “merry christmas” is going to bring in more of that 20% non-christians, or deter more of the 80% christians?

It will quite obviously bring in more of the 20% non-Christians, or the companies wouldn’t do it. Companies very rarely purposefully do actions that cut their own profits...unless you’re suggesting that Wal-Mart’s unabashed hatred of Christianity is stronger than their need to make money in a competetive market.