O'Reilly admits he falsely accused Plano of banning red and green clothing

Summary: Bill O'Reilly retracted his claim, reported at the time by Media Matters for America, that the Plano Independent School District (Texas) banned red and green clothing.

On the December 20 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly retracted his false claim that the Plano Independent School District (Texas) banned red and green clothing. As Media Matters for America reported at the time, the legal complaint filed against the school district did not allege any ban of red and green clothing.

O'Reilly originally asserted on both the December 9 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor and that day's broadcast of The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly that the Plano school district told students "they could not wear red and green because they were Christmas colors" and labeled the move "fascism."

During the December 20 edition of The Factor, O'Reilly admitted that he "made a mistake a few days ago when I said clothing was included in the party dictum."

From the December 20 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: In The Factor follow-up segment tonight, ground zero this year in the Christmas controversy is the town of Plano, Texas, just north of Dallas. Four families of second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders have filed a lawsuit in federal court saying their children were denied their rights of free expression. The case centers around children giving each other religious messages at Christmastime.

[...]

Now, I made a mistake a few days ago when I said clothing was included in that party dictum. Clothing was not included. It was colors of plates and cupcakes and things like that.

—S.G.