Just when you thought the “War on Christmas” (a.k.a. right-wing strawman argument to raise money and sell books) was in it’s “last throes”, we get the latest from Bill O’Reilly:
O’REILLY: Yeah, Target’s changed its policy. And we appreciate that.
CALLER: That’s fantastic. So, I hope now you can do something about Circuit City. I was in there last week —
O’REILLY: [Laughing] Circuit City —
CALLER: — and —
O’REILLY: I think people from India own Circuit City. I think that’s the problem there.
Unfortunatly, like many of O’Reilly’s claims around the “War on Christmas”, this one isn’t true either:
Contrary to O’Reilly’s ownership theory, none of the major, direct, institutional, or mutual fund holders of the publicly traded company is Indian. The same appears to be true of the company’s senior management and its board of directors. In addition, the retailer limits its business to the United States and Canada.
Well, there you go. Since this is my first posting to BooMan, do let me know your thoughts on Media Matters (good, bad and funny) and how I can best assist everyone here at BooMan (and what kind of topics you enjoy reading and discussing the most).
Do you have your own blog? Register today with Media Matters!
One thing I forgot to mention — Circuit City is a major advertiser with Pajamas Media (which is a collection of high-traffic right-wing blogs). Go figure.
Target caved? I hadn’t heard that. Guess I’ll scratch them off the ol’ Yule list.
I’ve been wondering: has O’Reilly been publicly asked what the thinks of his main squeeze Georgie sending out Happy Holidays cards? I’d really like to hear that one.
Thanks for the post, I hadn’t realized you had a newsletter. Signed up.
just keep on doing what you’re doing David, it has been a valuable resource to fight back on the propaganda that fills the airwaves. I especially like the “Take Action” section of your site.
Hope to see more from you in the future!
Thanks for the kind words — I’m going to try and post a dairy per day here, over at Kos, and on MyDD (OK, I’ll admit it, I like the user interface of Scoop software). If anyone has questions or feedback about our work, do drop me a note at dgrossman at mediamatters dot org.
I absolutely love Media Matters and usually check in there at least once a day. I would imagine though given that all these lying looney tunes are always shooting off their stupid mouths it’s almost impossible to keep up with their lies.
I think this whole made up ‘War on Christmas’ has sent Billy completely round the bend this year. We’ve still got almost 2 weeks to Christmas-so how many more outrageous lies is he going to come up with do ya think?…His whole not being able to wear green/red to school was pretty lame but he does get the wingnuts attention and ratings doesn’t he. Which has to be the point of all this anyway.
We’ve still got almost 2 weeks to Christmas-so how many more outrageous lies is he going to come up with do ya think?
I would think this would be a great way to really mock O’liely… Start a cross-blog pool on how many more lies/distortions about the supposed “war on christmas” Billy-bung will try and spread before Xmas.
Maybe give a prize to whomever guesses closest, or draw from a pool of the people that are closest in their guess to the correct answer.
It would be a hoot and a half and it would really make a point. The worst case scenario in this is that Billy would shut his yap up on the subject after he gets wind of it. The best case scenario is that it creates some mega-media interest in counting his lies.
but through Safari; for some reason my Adblock on Firefox doesn’t like the assorted video links. 🙁 Nice site redesign, BTW… 🙂
Any site that devotes a section to my man Keith Olbermann has to be awesome… 🙂
Target says in a statement*:
I don’t take this as a cave-in to snakehandling lunatics, no matter how much they might want to spin it that way. To me, it basically says that they’re going to do anything different. It reminds me of the “victory” over Ford that turned out to be anything but….
Another article link
*Quoted on a right-wing web site; I won’t give them the traffic by linking.
The only people who are “dissing” Christianity are right wing Christians.
Their behavior only reinforces the wisdom of Madison and other founders of this country who wanted to make sure that this kind of lunacy could not infect the entire government. The founders are certainly spinning in their graves.
Jesus was an opponent of empire and commercialism, not its fucking spokesman. American lunatic rightist Christians worship Constantine and his wife, not Jesus. Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman empire because he had a dream of the cross leading his legions (very Bush-like) and his wife claimed to have discovered the very cross to which the saviour was nailed. yeah right. Until then, the cross didn’t mean much to Christians. It was simply the way the Roman empire killed everybody that they thought was against the empire and couldn’t get a lawyer.
To his first followers the way Jesus lived was more important than the way he died, Mel Gibson excepted, because during the time of Jesus everybody got crucified.
Socrates was killed by the Athenian democracy for corrupting the young people of Athens and not worshiping the right gods. Fuck, they’re back. Of course, Socrates claimed that when the gods became unseemly they were no longer worthy or worship. Kind of like Touchdown Jesus at Notre Dame, or the Jesus we pray to at the slot machine, or before taking a foul shot, or the Jesus O’Reilly thinks is a shill for Wal-Mart.
Does anyone besides me find this ironic:
For years we’ve all heard (and I’ve often thought it true myself) that Christmas had become too commercial; that it should be less about material gain and more about the true message of Christmas, you know, things like love and peace and helping people less fortunate?
Now dear BillO (not to be confused with Brillo, even if they are both rough and scratchy) is fighting his good fight against the “War on Christmas” which seems to include coercing retailers into plastering the name of Christendom’s most important religious observance all over ads to hawk their material goods! Basically, he’s screaming, “How dare you not commercialize Christmas!”
I submit that the real outrage is the hijacking of Christmas for the sole purpose of furthering a political agenda that cares nothing about the ideals that I was taught are the basis of Christianity.
Besides, just the thought of referring to that pathetic looking trinket he’s selling on the Faux News website that bears his name as a “Christmas” ornament seems a little blasphemous to me! It ain’t gonna be on my tree!
The McDonalds near me, which is now a McCafe, has their outdoor sign read;
“Merry Christmas.
Jesus is the reason for the season.”
As if to make doubly sure that no O’Reilly watching asshats could miss that they McDonalds serve their customers’ pipin’ hot coffee in the name of the baby Jesus.
where Mary dresses the infant Jesus in Luv’s Diapers…
And we look forward to your participation.
Feel free to stop by the Froggy Bottom Cafe if you ever have the time. Snacks and drinks available 24/7, and there is always a pot of coffee on.