Continuing his fight against the "war on Christmas," O'Reilly falsely claimed year-old Daily Show clip aired previous night
SUMMARY: Bill O'Reilly played a year-old clip from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on his radio and cable shows to demonstrate the assault on Christmas by secular forces. However, he falsely told his radio listeners that the clip aired the day before and left his cable viewers with a similar misleading impression.
On the December 2 broadcasts of his Fox News talk show The O'Reilly Factor and his Westwood One radio show The Radio Factor, Bill O'Reilly played a year-old clip from Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to demonstrate an assault on Christmas by secular forces. However, he told his radio listeners the clip aired the day before and left his cable viewers with a similar misleading impression. O'Reilly's comments during both shows were part of his ongoing coverage of a so-called "war on Christmas."
Noting first on the Radio Factor that a Macy's department store television ad includes the word "Christmas," O'Reilly said, "the secularists, they don't like this at all. 'Secular Central' is Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Here's what happened there last night. Roll it." He then played an audio segment of a Daily Show clip featuring correspondent Samantha Bee:
BEE: But really, let's face it. All other days bow down to the 25th. It's the only religious holiday that's also a federal holiday. That way, Christians can go to their services and everyone else can stay home and reflect on the true meaning of separation of church and state.
Later, on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly showed the Macy's ad during the "Talking Points Memo" segment of the show. He said: "Christmas is here again at Macy's. Predictably, the opponents of public displays of Christmas continue to put forth counter-arguments on 'Secular Central'. I -- I mean, Comedy Central."
He then played the Daily Show clip, this time without Bee's first two sentences. Though he did not repeat the claim that the clip had aired the previous day, by playing the clip immediately after the ad, O'Reilly implied that it had aired concurrently with the Macy's ad.
A Media Matters for America review of Daily Show broadcasts for the week leading up to O'Reilly's December 2 claim shows that the clip was not replayed on the Daily Show during that time. As The Brad Blog weblog noted, the clip appears to be from an episode of the Daily Show that aired during last year's holiday season, not the current one. In the clip, Bee is standing in front of a calendar that clearly shows the month of December 2004.
O'Reilly told his O'Reilly Factor viewers he would remain "vigilant on the subject" until Christmas day.
From the December 2 broadcast of Fox News' The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:
O'REILLY: Now the secularists, they don't like this at all. "Secular Central" is Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Here's what happened there last night. Roll it.
BEE [audio clip]: But really, let's face it. All other days bow down to the 25th. Christmas: It's the only religious holiday that's also a federal holiday. That way, Christians can go to their services and everyone else can stay home and reflect on the true meaning of separation of church and state.
O'REILLY: [Laughs] There you go. Jon Stewart, "Secular Central." Oh, I'm sorry, Comedy Central -- and I like Stewart, but we know what he's doing over there. And it's not just Stewart. You know, 90 percent of -- quote/unquote -- "entertainers" are secular progressives. [Laughs] OK, we're up for the fight. We're up for it, man.
From the December 2 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: Christmas is here again at Macy's. Predictably, the opponents of public displays of Christmas continue to put forth counter-arguments on 'Secular Central.' I -- I mean, Comedy Central. They said this:
BEE [video clip]: Christmas: It's the only religious holiday that's also a federal holiday. That way, Christians can go to their services and everyone else can stay home and reflect on the true meaning of separation of church and state.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)
O'REILLY: And a Merry Christmas to you, Jon Stewart. As I said in my newspaper column this week, three wise men, one showed up to honor the Baby Jesus way back when. And if corporate executives are not wise enough to emulate that, well, those of us who respect Christmas might look elsewhere.
[...]
"Talking Points" is proud to be a part of the pro-Christmas movement. And things are moving our way, but eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. And over the next three weeks, we will be vigilant on this subject. Trust me. And that's the Memo.
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by dave_chicago
(December 07, 2005 12:43 pm ET)
Just last night (12/7/05), under the "About Bill" link on billoreilly.com, "Recommended Holiday Gifts" was revised to read, "Recommended Christmas Gifts".Reply Report Abuse -
by tex
(December 07, 2005 12:52 pm ET)
This whole "WAR ON CHRISTMAS" thing is dependent on EXAMPLES. Examples where "leftists" are actively trying to remove Christ/Religion from the Christmas message. By headlining an example that is 1. a year old, 2. misrepresented as being current, 3. a sarcastic skit/humor, and 4. contains no suggestion that Chrismas be banned, silenced, or otherwise done away with. The most interesting thing about this EXAMPLE, from O'Reilly who desperately needs a new windmill to tilt against, is that he had NOTHING ELSE on his plate to point to as an example of this "trend" of Anti-Christmas bias. In other words, if this is all he's got, he's run out of gas.Reply Report Abuse-
by dave_chicago
(December 07, 2005 1:23 pm ET)
Unless he wants to point to the example of the new Christmas card just sent out by the Bush White House. The card wishes everyone a "happy holiday season".Reply Report Abuse
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by optimusprime
(December 08, 2005 1:40 am ET)
I admire how Mr. O'Reilly evokes the words of an abolitionist in his crusade against those damn secular progressives, who just love persecuting christians for their beliefs. I would not be surprised if his "pro christmas movement " is of equal importance and magnitude to the abolitionist movement in his mind.Reply Report Abuse -
by dougpear
(December 08, 2005 11:03 am ET)
Not only was the clip a year old, but Jon Stewart brought out the very, very pregnant Samantha Bee to comment. When he asked her what was different about her appearance in the clip, she said (I'm paraphrasing) "It's obvious, Jon, look at my highlights. In that clip, they are blonde, and if you lood at me today, my highlights are obviously more of a chestnut" She says this dead pan, ignoring that she's not pregnant in the aired clip, and literally about 8 months along on the show last night. Bravo, Jon!Reply Report Abuse -
by fracas_futile
(December 08, 2005 2:26 pm ET)
It's hard to keep anti-gay marriage fervor at a fever pitch. Besides, the Extreme Right is saving that for the 2006 elections. You can bet the "War on Christmas" fiction is taking the same, underground path as last year's "Gay Marriage" issues did through the Religious Right and their churches. O'Reilly and Gibson are just keeping the base in self-righteous fightin' trim.Reply Report Abuse -
by joseph_b26
(December 08, 2005 4:56 pm ET)
From the very conception of this so called fight to save a greeting, the right, lead by O"Reilly, has did a lot to create this concern. Does O"Reilly think we our going to forget what he said about it being open season on San Francisco. Yes, he said it, and no amount of diversion will force me to focus on patriotic claim someone is stealing the Merry Christmas greeting, and putting Happy Holiday in its place. Next O"Reilly will be announcing he's forming a special focus unit to deal with the mass Merry Christmas theft throughout America. So what, I really want to know where does he get off telling the terrorist he supports their destruction of an American city. That the real issue. JosephReply Report Abuse -
by polunatic
(December 08, 2005 9:36 pm ET)
Not afraid to say what the ACLU is accused of thinking. http://polunatic.blogspot.com/2005/12/polunatics-war-on-christmas.html But in the interest of fairness and balance, also see the War on the War on Christmas: http://polunatic.blogspot.com/2005/12/polunatics-war-on-war-on-christmas.htmlReply Report Abuse
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