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O'Reilly falsely claimed that "spiritual" Christmas stamps are no longer being offered

December 13, 2005 2:51 pm ET
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SUMMARY: On The Radio Factor, host Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) no longer offers Christmas postage stamps with a "spiritual" theme. In fact, the USPS continues to offer the commemorative "Madonna and Child" stamp.

42 Comments

Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) no longer offers Christmas postage stamps with a "spiritual" theme. On the December 9 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, a caller asserted that "I was politely told by all the postal workers that I spoke with at the various post offices that the only stamp they offered was 'Holiday Cookies.' " O'Reilly replied, "I think it's the first time in my lifetime that the United States Postal Service has not had a spiritual stamp for people like you who would like them," adding that the purported lack of a spiritual stamp was "insulting you and your beliefs ... because your spiritual stamp is in context to the celebration of Christmas."

In fact, in addition to the "Holiday Cookies" stamps the caller cited, the USPS continues to offer the commemorative "Madonna and Child" stamp. The self-adhesive 37-cent "Madonna and Child" is available through the USPS website in individual books of 20, or in larger packs containing five books each. A December 2 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about "the Internet and public conversation awash with horror that no new religiously themed stamp was printed for the 2005 season" quoted Diana Svoboda, a spokeswoman for the USPS' Pittsburgh district, stating that reports of the Postal Service planning to discontinue religiously themed Christmas stamps were "absolutely not true." The Post-Gazette article went on to report that although a new design is typically chosen for the "Madonna and Child" every year, this year USPS opted not to print a new design, due to an overstock of 37-cent "Madonna and Child" stamps left over from the previous Christmas season. USPS is increasing the price of first-class stamps to 39 cents on January 8, and "[t]he Postal Service ... didn't want a fresh crop of outdated stamps sitting in the drawers for next year," the Post-Gazette reported.

From the December 9 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:

CALLER: I'm calling about -- I like to send Christmas cards. And every year I try and send cards with United States Post Office Christmas stamps on them that say Christmas or something with the infant and child, Mary, something that says something about Christ.

O'REILLY: Right.

CALLER: And this year, I was very surprised when I was politely told by all the postal workers that I spoke with at the various post offices that the only stamp they offered was "Holiday Cookies" saying nothing on it.

O'REILLY: I know this is, I think, the first time ever, right, [caller]?

CALLER: It's the first time I remember, Mr. O'Reilly.

O'REILLY: Yeah. I think it's the first time in my lifetime that the United States Postal Service has not had a spiritual stamp for people like you who would like them. And, again, disrespectful. Flat-out disrespectful, insulting you and your beliefs, [caller], because your spiritual stamp is in context to the celebration of Christmas. And we gotta stop that, and we will.

— J.B.
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    • Author by rusty shackleford (December 13, 2005 3:10 pm ET)
         
      Instead of issuing a correction for repeating his caller's mistake, I bet O'Reilly takes credit for fixing the non-existent problem.
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      • Author by amazed (December 14, 2005 3:01 am ET)
           
        I can't remember a Christmas past when there wasn't a Madonna and Child stamp. This logical fallacy O'Reilly engages in over this non-point of a non-issue suggests that if I was to go to the post office and ask for some stamp they were out of (which is so typical it's not even worth mentioning to anyone who has ever gone to a post office to buy non-roll stamps) and they said they didn't have it, that I should therefore assume it never existed in the first place. I mean, a bright 8-year-old could see right through this. O'Reilly lives is as much of a bubble as Bush does.
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        • Author by aleistercrow (December 14, 2005 12:18 pm ET)
             
          To be fair the madonna and child isn't really Christmas themed. It's a stamp that supports Christianity, in its classical sense, not Christmas and the Christmas Season. So this year, there aren't "Christmas Stamps" though there are "Christain Stamps". I think that's the point O'reilly was trying to make.
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          • Author by kend (December 14, 2005 12:53 pm ET)
               
            And not jump to conclusions. I have the Madonna and Child stamps in front of me. Stamps that were prominently displayed among the other stamp choices at the desk at my local P.O. yesterday when I bought them. The stamps have Christmas at the top, so how is this not themed? [At the bottom the stamps say "J.Gossaert Art Institute of Chicago 2003"
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            • Author by aleistercrow (December 14, 2005 7:22 pm ET)
                 

              But the point still remains– this year's christmas stamps were replaced with "Holiday" cookie stamps, marking a precdent of the post office moving away from Christms. Also, they didn't bother to print new Madonna and Child stamps, when it's well known that the 37 cent stamps will be out of comission soon. Don't go all Michael Moore on me, I'm just trying to present a different argument from you, no need to get nasty.

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              • Author by solon (December 14, 2005 8:01 pm ET)
                   

                Is that if they are about to change the cost they dont print new stamps about to be outdated, nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas. If you are going to present a different argument try one that isnt disengenuous

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      • Author by WeedHighNightmare (December 14, 2005 10:21 am ET)
           
        I strongly suspect that certain callers to O'Reilly's show (and others, especially Limbaugh's show) are planted in order to start dialogue and pass along misinformation in such a way as to avoid blame for the host.
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    • Author by wolfbato (December 13, 2005 3:15 pm ET)
         
      think about it ... Gibson writes a book [factoid: Mein Kampf was a book too] and mentions this crap about the "war on christmas" or "christians" and gets his buddies at Fox to create this empty, vacuous, and transparent FOX ALERT. It's about selling a book and nothing else. And it's all a bore.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by phreak (December 13, 2005 3:17 pm ET)
         
      Thanks to O'Reilly I now know the real meaning of Christmas. For all these years I thought it was about the teachings of Jesus...stuff like peace, love, family, and such.

      Apparently it is really about being able to buy icons of Jesus at 32 cents a pop so you lick yourself a merry Christmas.

      Report Abuse
      • Author by irked (December 13, 2005 11:22 pm ET)
           
        The 2nd Commandment:

        "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything. . ."

        Ol' Mr. Bill encouraging people to sin again.,/p.

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      • Author by mim (December 15, 2005 5:12 am ET)
           

        Phreak, has it been that long since you last sent anything by first-class mail? It's 37 cents a pop, going up to 39 cents in a few weeks.

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    • Author by pete592 (December 13, 2005 3:26 pm ET)
         
      It's surprising how sloppy his research is. So he calls a few post offices and finds out all they have is 'cookie' stamps. He doesn't bother to go straight to the source! What an idiot! Judging by his 'far left smear site' rants, you know he looks at this site. I wish I could see the look on his face every time he discovers that MMFA has pulled his pants down again.
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      • Author by JuiceD (December 13, 2005 3:52 pm ET)
           
        O'Reilly should have said, 'let me check into this situation' instead of going along with the caller.

        Of course he may have found what the caller said was true. I went to our post office here in town (a week ago) to purchase a book of Christmas Postage Stamps, and was given only the one choice, and that was the Holiday Cookies. I didn't ask for religious stamps, or if others were available, but I assumed since I was handed the Cookies Stamps there weren't any others to choose from.

        Maybe they can only be purchased on line?

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        • Author by Interpolation (December 13, 2005 7:53 pm ET)
             
          So, according to my own painstaking research, our local post office has no (nodda zilch) xmasday stamps (not even the "cookies"). Why? Have they banned xmasday? No, it turns out that the price of postage is going up in January, and they didn't want to get stuck with too many out of date stamps. It turns out that capitolism sucked the religion out of Christmas, not the ACLU.
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        • Author by mim (December 14, 2005 1:41 pm ET)
             
          Juice, I bought mine in a post office. Maybe they'd have given you M&C stamps if you had asked. Or maybe they were out of them. But this year I didn't see any posters on the wall advertising the M&C stamps, perhaps because they were selling last year's design. So if anyone judges what the USPS is selling based on the posters on the wall, one could jump to the conclusion that there is no such stamp. But I also have Yip Harburg stamps and I never saw a poster for them.
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      • Author by rusty shackleford (December 13, 2005 3:54 pm ET)
           
        Actually it was his caller who (allegedly) made the calls to the post offices. Then O'Reilly repeated the misinformation from his caller as if it were proven fact. Which makes Bill seem not only ill-informed, but lazy to boot.
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        • Author by JuiceD (December 13, 2005 4:12 pm ET)
             
          I didn't call the post office or even ask about the availability of other stamps, but I'm wondering now why there wasn't any information (a sign hung in the post office for instance) with the website displayed explaining religious stamps were available on line.

          I do agree with you that O'Reilly was incredibly lazy. He should have put a call into the post office right then and there to check out the caller's allegations.

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    • Author by freedom4all (December 13, 2005 3:27 pm ET)
         
      Even if he's a little bitter.
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    • Author by azaziel (December 13, 2005 3:53 pm ET)
         
      and they have pictures of all the stamps available. In addition to the "Madonna and Child" stamp, on those "Holiday Cookie" stamps that the caller was complaining about, one of the cookies is in the shape of an angel. Last time I check that was a religious symbol as well.
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      • Author by lgmccoy1 (December 15, 2005 10:51 pm ET)
           

        Notice the P.O. is following suit to eliminate the word Christmas from their stamps like other retailers this season. Hence the "holiday cookies" reference on their stamps. They've always been called Christmas cookies at my house. What's with all this politically correct hogwash? Wake up America keep an open mind.

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    • Author by mjh (December 13, 2005 4:06 pm ET)
         
      We are currently engaged in a REAL WAR in Iraq that has cost over 2,000 American lives as well as those of countless Iraqi civilians . . . why is this clown still running his mouth about a FAKE "WAR" on Christmas??!!
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    • Author by Sagra (December 13, 2005 4:06 pm ET)
         
      Starting at exactly 3:02:00pm CST, I typed www.usps.gov into my browser, went to the stamp store, found the holiday section and located this item at 3:03:08. That took 68 seconds.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by sgv (December 13, 2005 4:17 pm ET)
         
      Last week Mr Holiday thought Irving Berlin wrote Silent Night instead of White Christmas! Again more laughs on the Bogus War on Christmas!
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    • Author by scarabus (December 13, 2005 5:28 pm ET)
         
      I was just thinking. The caller said that there are no Christian Christmas stamps on sale. BOR said, "Yeah, I know. Blah, blah, blah." Possibility #1, obviously, is that BOR was lying his ass off. Completely in character, of course. But consider possibility #2—that the caller was an actress, using BOR's collossal arrogance to manipulate him. She would have known that BOR would never, ever admit to being unaware of so "shocking" a demonstration of the W on C. All she would have to do is mention it, and he would take it and run. I'm not completely joking. The question is to what extent BOR is the Prince of Darkness (or a high-ranking deputy), and to what extent he is simply a court jester—or marionette, moving and speaking at the behest of those who manipulate him. I mean, let's face it. The loofah boy's clumsy seduction attempt revealed a lot more than his lack of class, character, professional ethics, or personal morality. It also revealed that his bulb glows with very low wattage. There's an easy way to test this speculative theory—namely, to have an actress (or actor, but I think a woman would be better) call his show and trick him into a stupid claim. But that would be unethical, of course. That would be a Karl Rove or George Bush thing, not the sort of stunt a person of honor would attempt.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by lizf (December 13, 2005 5:50 pm ET)
         
      What planet does O'Reilly live on? I bought over a hundred Christmas stamps at our local Post Office in Kenhorst PA right after Thanksgiving - the aforementioned Holiday Cookies, a book of leftover Santas from last year - AND 3 books of Madonna and Child! And I went back last week to buy some more M&C's. There was no shortage of religious stamps. That man (and I use the term loosely) is loonier than a Christmas fruitcake!!
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Blueneck (December 13, 2005 6:45 pm ET)
         
      There are no hordes of barbarian liberals at the gates waiting to lay waste to Christendom. Instead we have pathetic unabating attempt by the wingnut right to "manage our perceptions" as this very nice article by Robert Parry shows. Anyone who is paying attention, save the dead end Koolaid drinkers is onto the antics of unpresident Bush and the destruction he and his gang of Neocon criminals are raining down on the economy, our international reputation, and the rest of the world. Lies, torture, murder and perpetual war are merely means to the achievement of policy goals to these asses. Now that everyone is finally beginning to see it they need another Willie Horton or assault by the Swift Boat Liars to redirect our attention from their abysmal record. Really the only question left to answer is whether or not G.W. Bush is the worst leader in the history of this country. I'll withold judgement on that since who knows who Diebold and the Supreme Court may install in the White House next. There is probably no one among us who in this hour does not look up to heaven. The war has taught us not only be to strong against our enemies, but also to accept our fate and the will of its godly ruler. We thank the Almighty for the proud victories that he again has given us. We will continue fighting until total victory is ours. While these were the word of Joseph Goebbels they could just as easily come out of the mouth of almost anyone in Bush's administration. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by mim (December 15, 2005 5:33 am ET)
           

        I like your distraction argument; I think it's probably true. And according to a history site which I'll have to look up (only then can you judge whether it's reliable), historians differ about whether GWB is the worst ever, worst since Reagan, worst since Nixon, worst since Harding, worst since Grant, or worst since Buchanan. My unprofessional guess is that he's the worst ever. So far.

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    • Author by mefirst (December 13, 2005 7:52 pm ET)
         
      at least this is something where o'reilly can be readily shown to be a liar, because there have to be a ton of people who have bought or gotten the religious stamp. and when o'reilly's lackeys start spouting this crap, it can be quickly debunked. nine out of ten times the religious stamp is m&c anyway.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by mim (December 14, 2005 1:19 pm ET)
           
        I could have told him that's not true. I bought a book of M&C stamps for the Christmas cards I'm sending out (I still have some stamps left over from last year). And if his listeners are so gung-ho about Christmas, I'm sure that a lot of them have the M&C stamps too. Like it would kill him (or the caller) to at least visit the USPS Website? I don't think this War on Christmas hype was based on the Alito nomination. Remember, it went on last year. Rather, I think Fox is trying to keep the masses stirred up against the liberals, even in this season of goodwill. That's probably why there was no rt-wing hue and cry over the Reagan White House's holiday cards. Funny, I never thought of a postage stamp as being spiritual.
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    • Author by luctor (December 13, 2005 8:08 pm ET)
         
      You want to know why BOR c.s. started this war on Christmas? Look at the NYT of 12/5 for the answer. "Ads Portray Nominee as Protector of Christmas (Alito) DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 - It is the time of year when bedtime stories and television specials often recall the plucky reindeer and the little girl of Whoville who managed to save Christmas. This year, some conservative groups are hoping to add a new name to that pantheon of heroes: Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., the Supreme Court nominee. "
      Report Abuse
    • Author by oscar the grouch (December 13, 2005 8:28 pm ET)
         
      Bloviator Bill gets half the headlines, when will he achieve a clean sweep? Would love to see Olbermann award him "Worst Person of the Millenium."
      Report Abuse
    • Author by deeanna (December 14, 2005 1:29 am ET)
         
      You are doing such a wonderful job at uncovering these BOLD faced lies from o'Reilly, even Keith Oberman (sp) has caught on and making him look like a stone idiot. So are others.Thanks.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by j0hnwi11iams (December 14, 2005 3:22 am ET)
         
      How do you like your war now, feces thrower?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by skiploader1111 (December 14, 2005 4:04 am ET)
         
      Next year, O'Reilly will take credit for the USPS making a new religious design, which they have already decided to do a long time ago. He will claim that due to his pressure the USPS will cancel their plans to eliminate religion from postage stamps. He will take credit just like he did when he said that he damaged the French economy with his boycott.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by spacemanspiff (December 14, 2005 7:07 am ET)
         
      http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43438
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      • Author by political_left-religious_right (December 14, 2005 10:15 am ET)
           

        And, speaking of "Spaceman Spiff," I found an old Calvin & Hobbes cartoon recently that might have been written with O'Reilly in mind.

        Scene: C&H walking

        C: I'm thinking of starting my own talk radio show.

        C: I'll spout simplistic opinions for hours on end, ridicule anyone who disagrees with me, and generally foster divisiveness, cynicism, and a lower level of public dialog!

        H: It would seem you were born for the job.
        C: Imagine getting paid to act like a six-year-old!

        So the question is: Does O'Reilly--with his constant rejection of reality and his simplistic "my way or the highway" view of himself--talk to a stuffed tiger?
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    • Author by don singleton (December 14, 2005 12:35 pm ET)
         
      It is last year's stamp. Issue date was 10/13/2004. They may have some left in the shipping area for their website purchases, and possibly even some offices have them, but can you guarantee that all offices have an ample supply?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by bogustrumper (December 14, 2005 1:22 pm ET)
         
      I think the whole "War on Christmas" is a farce. However, that doesn't mean that I'm not disappointed that they don't have a 2005 Madonna and Child stamp. I collect them. Happen to be Christian and I like to put them on the Christmas cards I send out. I also plan to put them in a scrapbook for my kids which has a spot for the yearly Christmas stamp. It's going to be weird to see every Christmas page in that scrapbook start with a Madonna and Child except the 2005 page. What should I do? Buy the cookies stamp? Or put the 2004 stamp on the 2005 page? uhahdunno. I'm still thinking about it.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by k2 (December 14, 2005 4:45 pm ET)
         
      I asked for Christmas stamps and was offered THE MADONNA AND CHILD as a first choice. I live in Cleveland which is certainly no red area. BO is nuttier than a Christmas fruitcake.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by ted37_99 (December 15, 2005 5:01 pm ET)
         

      I can tell you for a fact there are Madonna stamps and a generic colorful holiday stamp, so there are at least two choices that I am aware of. I can't be sure if this is true of all USPS customers, but the ones on my mail route buy the generic holiday ones from me and I have never had a complaint about it.

      Report Abuse
    • Author by giamilton (December 16, 2005 2:25 pm ET)
         

      Is it just me or does the Holiday Cookies stamp have an ANgel cookie? Last time I heard Angels were not considered secular.

      [link to shop.usps.com]

      Report Abuse