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O’Reilly caught in another lie/eggageration over war on Xmas

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JustanObserver
 
Reply Thu 15 Dec, 2005 11:21 am
Quote:

War on Christmas Fraud Exposed: The Silent Night "Rewrite" That Wasn't

On Friday, Bill O'Reilly took to the airwaves to share the latest "War on Christmas" outrage:

In Dodgeville, Wisconsin, the Ridgewood Elementary School has changed the song Silent Night to Cold in the Night and forced the kids to sing the lyrics, "Cold in the night, No one in sight, Winter winds whirl and bite," to the tune of the original Silent Night.

O'Reilly was by no means the only conservative to repeat this story. During a Dec. 10 appearance on Fox News, Mathew Staver of the Liberty Counsel said the presentation at Ridgewood Elementary had "no balance here. They have no Christian Christmas carols." He even threatened to sue the school:

People are outraged. We sent a demand letter asking them to immediately change the song and allow the actual lyrics of "Silent Night," and if they do not, if they insist on this ridiculous course of action, we'll file a federal lawsuit.

As it turns out, the entire story is a fraud.

Ridgewood Elementary didn't change the lyrics to "Silent Night." What they did was perform a 1988 copyrighted play called "The Little Tree's Christmas Gift."

That play actually contains numerous songs about Christmas, including the grand finale, an audience-led group singing of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." The play's creator, Dwight Elrich, happens to lead the New Covenant Singers of Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.

In fact, "The Little Tree's Christmas Gift" has been performed in several churches, including the Oakwood Forest Christian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee, the St. Anthony Parish School in Des Moines, Iowa, and St. Mark's Episcopal Church of Abeline, Texas.


Sorry, Virginia, there is no "War on Christmas."


SOURCE

What a joke this guy is getting to be. You think he would be more careful after being called out for his attack on the Daily Show using material that was over a year old.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 1,362 • Replies: 15
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boomerang
 
  1  
Reply Thu 15 Dec, 2005 11:43 am
I wonder what O'Reilly would think of my Funyuns version.....
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yitwail
 
  1  
Reply Thu 15 Dec, 2005 11:56 am
he's gone from the no-spin zone to the no-fact-checking zone Razz
0 Replies
 
Stevepax
 
  1  
Reply Thu 15 Dec, 2005 12:10 pm
I love O'Reilly! He is the classic example of rightwing thought and logic. I think it's great that he's out there showing us what rightwingers are all about ... on a daily basis!
0 Replies
 
candidone1
 
  1  
Reply Thu 15 Dec, 2005 01:34 pm
Well, it was established during a fallout with some former Fox execs that it is not a crime tio falsify news.
I'm hardly surprised at Oreilly or FOX on this one. Fair and balanced my ass.
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Baldimo
 
  1  
Reply Sat 17 Dec, 2005 01:50 pm
If Christmas isn't under attack then how come there has been such a push to change Christmas in many places to Happy Holidays? How come people in places aren't allowed to wish people a Merry Christmas? Stand around and look at your cities and see how many of them really use ther Term Christmas on anything. Holiday Trees, Winter parades, and even winter break. These have all been going through changes in the last decade. Look around and see for yourself.
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Phoenix32890
 
  1  
Reply Sat 17 Dec, 2005 02:03 pm
Baldimo wrote:
If Christmas isn't under attack then how come there has been such a push to change Christmas in many places to Happy Holidays?


Christmas is not under attack. There has finally come a realization that there are many people in the United States who do not celebrate Christmas. It is out of respect for the diversity in this country that the greeting, "Happy Holidays" is an acknowledgement there are holidays besides Christmas that people celebrate.


Baldimo wrote:
How come people in places aren't allowed to wish people a Merry Christmas?


What do you mean by "in places"? Privately, people can certainly greet each other with anything that they wish. If a corporation has instructed their workers to say "Happy Holidays", again, it is an acknowledgement that not everyone celebrates Christmas. It is presumptious to assume that they do.

I sent out three presents this morning, to my son, my granddaughter, and my son's girlfriend. Two of the cards said "Happy Holidays", the third said, "Merry Christmas".
0 Replies
 
talk72000
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Dec, 2005 01:42 am
Jesus was born in October as the shepherds were out in the fields when the angels informed them of Jesus' birth. December would be too cold for them to be outdoors. December 25 was stolen from the Mithra religion.
0 Replies
 
JTT
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Dec, 2005 03:52 am
Baldimo wrote:
If Christmas isn't under attack then how come there has been such a push to change Christmas in many places to Happy Holidays? How come people in places aren't allowed to wish people a Merry Christmas?


Jesus, Baldimo, you've drunk way more kool aid that your alloted share.

Happy Holidays, Baldimo!
0 Replies
 
Baldimo
 
  1  
Reply Sat 24 Dec, 2005 02:44 pm
Phoenix32890 wrote:
Baldimo wrote:
If Christmas isn't under attack then how come there has been such a push to change Christmas in many places to Happy Holidays?


Christmas is not under attack. There has finally come a realization that there are many people in the United States who do not celebrate Christmas. It is out of respect for the diversity in this country that the greeting, "Happy Holidays" is an acknowledgement there are holidays besides Christmas that people celebrate.


Baldimo wrote:
How come people in places aren't allowed to wish people a Merry Christmas?


What do you mean by "in places"? Privately, people can certainly greet each other with anything that they wish. If a corporation has instructed their workers to say "Happy Holidays", again, it is an acknowledgement that not everyone celebrates Christmas. It is presumptious to assume that they do.

I sent out three presents this morning, to my son, my granddaughter, and my son's girlfriend. Two of the cards said "Happy Holidays", the third said, "Merry Christmas".


Do you really think the # of people who don't celerbrate Christmas is enough to remove the term from public life? I hardly think it is. If there are people who don't celebrate Christmas then why do the stores make so much money during the holiday? Even here in Pakistan there are many people who are celbrating Christmas. The cooks who cook out food who are all locals over 50% of them are Catholics. This in a Muslim country. If we were living in Pakistan or some other county where there is a majority or even a close minority who didn't celebrate Christmas then I would agree with you. This isn't the case in the US. The majority of people in the US celebrate Christmas and a very small minority do not celebrate it. When those #'s begin to equal then I would agree with it. Till then leave the majority with the holiday. Does it harm someone to be told Merry Christmas? No it doesn't. They are only words. We should stop letting the minority control the game.
0 Replies
 
farmerman
 
  1  
Reply Sat 24 Dec, 2005 02:59 pm
I think this is the right wings new Mantra , that someone out there is f**kin with your right to wish a Merry Christmas. Better call Hallmark, seems that nobody told them, and their livelihood depends on it.
BTW, the term Happy Holidays was around when I was a kid (not so , the many j. o. conservatives who spend all of their alloted time tirelessly looking at everyone elses personal freedoms assuming a mandate to homogenize us all to comport only with their right-wing worldview).

Merry Christmas everyone.

Happy Holidaaaays, Happy Holidaaaays
May the Merry Bells keep ringin
Happy Holidayyys to youuu.

Somebody named , Crosby? sang that one when I was in kindergarten in the mid fifties

Go suck on a ripe lemon Baldy
0 Replies
 
hamburger
 
  1  
Reply Sat 24 Dec, 2005 03:04 pm
gretings from eastern lake ontario :
have a good one , eh ! hbg
0 Replies
 
Dartagnan
 
  1  
Reply Sat 24 Dec, 2005 03:26 pm
The latest New Yorker has a piece on the history of the "War on Christmas". Henry Ford minced no words: He blamed it all on the Jews.

O'Reilly and his ilk follow in that proud tradition...
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Finn dAbuzz
 
  1  
Reply Sat 24 Dec, 2005 05:54 pm
What I love is how important Liberals think the utterings of O'Reilly, Limbaugh, and Coulter are.

Your reaction to them feeds their popularity.

Me, I save my ill will and contempt for Kennedy, Pelosi and Dean. They can actually due harm to me and my country.

There are no real Liberal equivalents to the Conservative axis of evil cited above. Not because Liberals are incapable of producing smart assed blowhards, but because Conservatives won't see them as Satan's spawn, trying to engineer a revolution.

Merry Christmas.

It's all good after all.
0 Replies
 
JTT
 
  1  
Reply Thu 29 Dec, 2005 05:53 pm
Finn d'Abuzz wrote:
What I love is how important Liberals think the utterings of O'Reilly, Limbaugh, and Coulter are.

Your reaction to them feeds their popularity.

What feeds their popularity is that there is a large segement of the population that have **** for brains, present company excepted of course.

Me, I save my ill will and contempt for Kennedy, Pelosi and Dean. They can actually due harm to me and my country.

As opposed to the current crew of bozos. Nobody in recent memory has done greater harm to the USA.

Merry Christmas.

You too, you ole master of insipidness.

0 Replies
 
JustanObserver
 
  1  
Reply Thu 29 Dec, 2005 07:29 pm
Quote:
What feeds their popularity is that there is a large segement of the population that have **** for brains


I wouldn't go quite so far as to say that (although certainly a few fall into that category). It's probably that there are many people who, between work, kids, private life, and all the rest, that just don't have the time or inclination to read up on issues for themselves.

Many have a gut feeling towards one side or the other, and put all their trust, sadly, in people like O'Reilly and Rush. These spokespersons for the administration parrot half truths and administrative talking points, which are then quoted like gospel to the people they interact with and these falsehoods spread and take root in peoples minds.

A good example is that of the whole "wiretapping/eavesdropping" matter. I've heard people argue in favor of it, many times using the quote "Well, when you wait 72 hours to bring it to the court, the terrorists could have already killed people!" They seem oblivious to the fact that the courts will ALLOW the wiretapping immediately, but require that the court be notified of the rational WITHIN 72 hours of the observation. It's a critical aspect of the issue that seems to go unnoticed or ignored among the followers of people like Rush and O'Reilly.

Disseminate this misinformation to millions of people who listen to such idiocy, combined with the fact that they vote (and these issues are critical to making an informed decision), and you have a REAL problem there.
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