O'Reilly still blasting retail chains for apocryphal "Merry Christmas" ban
SUMMARY: On his radio show, Bill O'Reilly claimed that
retailers Best Buy and Crate & Barrel are "still ordering their
people not to say,
'Merry Christmas,' " and that the stores
"will fire" employees who do. According to each store's
spokesperson, neither retail chain has such a policy.
On the November 29 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O'Reilly continued to hype the so-called "war" on Christmas by claiming that retailers Best Buy and Crate & Barrel are "still ordering their people not to say, 'Merry Christmas,' " and that the stores "will fire" employees who do. O'Reilly also asserted that "ordering" employees "not to say 'Merry Christmas' " is "the worst kind of fascism you could possibly have." In fact, representatives of both stores have denied having policies that forbid employees to say "Merry Christmas" to customers.
Contrary to O'Reilly's assertion, neither Crate & Barrel nor Best Buy appears to have policies forbidding employees from saying "Merry Christmas" and firing them if they do so. O'Reilly is presumably basing his claim that Crate & Barrel "order[s] their people not to say 'Merry Christmas' " on a November 22 Minneapolis Star Tribune article, which reported that Crate & Barrel spokesperson Betty Kahn said, "We would definitely not say 'Merry Christmas.' " But as the weblog Think Progress reported, "Kahn said her quote was misconstrued. Crate & Barrel has no policy encouraging or discouraging store employees from saying 'Merry Christmas' or any other greeting."
Best Buy also reportedly does not forbid its employees to say "Merry Christmas." As noted in the November 22 Augusta Chronicle, "Best Buy spokeswoman Dawn Bryant said Best Buy workers are allowed to greet customers any way they choose, including 'Merry Christmas,' but the company's promotional efforts are limited." Bryant added "that one [Best Buy] commercial uses the Happy Holidays saying. 'The idea is that we're celebrating the entire holiday season, just not pulling out any one specific holiday.' " According to the November 22 Star Tribune report, another Best Buy spokesperson asserted: "We're not banning Christmas. ...It's the opposite. We're celebrating that holiday, along with the others that are celebrated during November and December."
From the November 29 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:
O'REILLY: It's a bunch of people who are running around and they're angry, but they've got no direction for the anger. And there are so many insane things that, everyday, I come into work and I say to myself, "How can this be happening?"
You know, I have to tell you that I did not want to do Christmas controversy stories this year. You know, we did it last year, we won the war, Wal-Mart and Macy's and all the big stores are saying, "Merry Christmas," and they've stopped ordering their employees not to say it -- most of them. Best Buy and Crate & Barrel are two that still are ordering their people not to say, "Merry Christmas," which is the worst kind of fascism you could possibly have. They have a right to do it but it's just stupid.
But anyway, this season I said to myself, "You know, with all the trouble we have overseas and the war on terror, I really don't want to get into the Christmas thing again." We won it, it was a worthy campaign, but do we have to do it again? And then, I'm confronted with this stuff.
[...]
O'REILLY: So, that is the -- that is the end game. Now, you get back to Crate & Barrel and Best Buy, who are ordering their employees, "If you say, 'Merry Christmas,' we will fire you." Now, this is insane, OK? It is, to me, an affront, so I don't shop at those places. I don't want to give them my business, because they annoy me. Nothing more. Nothing more. It's annoying. I don't want to do business with those people. My right. Now, it is their right to tell their employees what they can and cannot say. Unfortunately, private companies can do that. It's their right.
So, it's basically my right -- I'm not going to buy your little barrel or a crate, or I'm not going to Best Buy. I'm going to go someplace that says, "Merry Christmas," because it's the Christmas season. That's why you give gifts. You give gifts because it's Christmastime. The spirit of giving. That's a tradition. Don't acknowledge the tradition, I ain't gonna -- I'm not going to buy it, not going to do it.
[...]
O'REILLY: I have to fire somebody. How many people have I fired this year? Philip Nulman, CEO of the Nulman Group and author of the marketing book, Just Say Yes! All right, so you believe that Crate & Barrel and Best Buy and others who order their employees not to say, "Merry Christmas" are smart?
If what he's saying is a lie (which, I'm sure, is a fact).
They're afraid of a full-on O'Reilly boycott.
That's, like,...TWO listeners, isn't it???
If last night at C & B was any indication, that store is going to be crazy when we get further into the month.
What a knob.
one of them would. Billdo would backpedal so fast, he'd probably run up his own ass.
There's no way in hell O'Blather's comments are hurting the business of Best Buy and Crate and Barrel or any other store he targets. This is because his consituents are greedy unprincipled a-holes who are unwilling to sacrifice a few dollars to make any sort of political or social statement.
I would bet that the vast majority of Crate and Barrel shoppers are liberal and can't stand O'Falafel anyway.
O'Reilly is LUCKY that Crate & Barrel is selling ANYTHING related to Christmas (which was a PAGAN holiday to begin with) since the Crate & Barrel company is PROMINENTLY JEWISH.
And, by the way, NOBODY has to sue Bill O'Reilly.
That's just too easy.
Let the big blowhole ramble and rant until he's blue in the face. NOBODY believes this crappy "war on christmas" s**t anyhow. He does this every year like a predictable little doggy who barks for his master everytime they come home after work.
one of the righty talk radio stations while driving around this morning. Maybe not O'Reilly's, but I think it's the L.A. station that carries Laura Ingraham and Michael Medved.
The station promos are wishing their listeners "Happy Holidays".
The outrage !
UH-OH! They didn't say MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! OH NO!!!
I hope Bill O'Reilly is ready to launch a whole FACTOR INVESTIGATION on them!
Did you hear, I think it was when Malkin was on his show, he shouted so loudly about the whole "war on Christmas" thing annoying him that Malkin actually cringed.
Hope o'Fallafel isn't on his way to the funny farm.
Especially with Keith Olbermann kicking his ass in the ratings department.
Extorting businesses to use preferred language.
The only reason O'Reilly cares is so he can feel validated when he buys things in the great big american marketing scam known as Christmas.
I live in Mexico the largest catholic nation in the world and nobody has said Feliz Navidad to me. They are probabally more worried about celebrating the faith based holiday than making people spending stupid amounts of money feel better about themselves.
What if O'Reilly (and Gibson and the other gasbags on Fox) "win" their little "War on Christmas" thing? They will have insured that we keep Christmas a secular holiday, a massive celebration of conspicuous consumerism, rather than allowing it to be, simply, a Christian Holiday.
Ironic, isn't it?
And that is boycott state lotteries for putting "Holiday" instead of "Christmas" on the scratch-off tickets.
And he thinks we're downplaying Christmas by use of Happy Holidays and/or Season's Greetings? All 3 are one and the same, right?
And the reason why we call this season the Holiday Season is that it's about THREE holidays, not just one: Thanksgiving (which just passed), Christmas (which is coming up in 24 days), and New Year's (which is coming up in about a month).
I find it very depressing that people actually buy into the "war" on Christmas. BOR said it himself that there are more important things to be talking about right now. I would hope that after the leader of this "war" on Christmas has admitted that he is just a small petty person that people would stop listening to him. I have a sneaking suspiscion though, that the people who were tricked by this "war" would not notice his confession.
BO jokingly called himself small and petty, as if noticing he's an idiot somehow makes him less of an idiot.
O'REILLY: It's a bunch of people who are running around and they're angry, but they've got no direction for the anger.
Project much, BilldO.
Now if you'll excuse me , I,ve got to strap on my wire,go down to the mall and try to trick some store employees into wishing me a Merry Christmas.
At which time I'll blow my S-P Shofar to summon my super-ACLU-Jew squad of Christ hating lawyers, and that store will be shut down like a mosque on Friday.Unless I got my sabbaths mixed up, hard for a theological free-agent to keep them straight.
for your hilarious comment.
Also, when i read this comment by him, I too just realized he must be projecting: O'REILLY: It's a bunch of people who are running around and they're angry, but they've got no direction for the anger.
Why is it so dam crucial to O'Reilly and others what an anonymous stranger in a store says anyway? I could understand hurt feelings if your mother didn't send you a Christmas card, or if your sister-in-law didn't say "Merry Christmas". But a college-age kid at an electronics store? Sheeesh, set some priorities in your miserable life.
p.s.: I'm really sure Bill O'Reilly frequents his local Best Buy. Right....
"Best Buy and Crate & Barrel are two that still are ordering their people not to say, "Merry Christmas," which is the worst kind of fascism you could possibly have. "
The above statement is the most insensitive and totally insane utterance that this twit has ever spewed.
The worst kind of fascism?
Yes, even worse than the Nazi's. One group murders more than 6 million people because of their religion. More than 50 million would perish as a result of the fascists in the 1930's and 40's. The fascists today, refuse to give the proper holiday greeting.
If you buy into O'Really's fantasy world, you need serious help. Either you are too weak minded to deal with reality and would prefer to have intellectually lazy men like O'Reilly think for you or you're just plain insane.
you better not link this trio to the Christ. Jesus didn't preappear 14 days before the manger and say, "Only 14 shopping days left until Christmas!"
The Christ was about service and not acquisition. The Christ was antithetical to most Americans' Christmas. So, having a corporate employee say, "Merry Christmas" to shoppers, in terms of the Christ, makes Christmas anything but merry.
The "worst kind of fascism?"
Oh, my, I am so going to remember this the next time some wingnut jackass gets all foaming-at-the-mouth over some supposed Bush-Hitler comparison.
"Hey, at least they didn't accuse Bush of keeping people from saying 'Merry Christmas.' That would be so much worse!"
don't give this man any more of your attention, in which he thirsts for like a baby to it's mothers nipple, in order to survive.
I disagree. He is one of many that we should be actively watching. He has a huge audience of (presumably brain-dead) followers who could potentially act on his every word, though in this case I doubt they'll stop shopping at Best Buy if that's where the best prices are offered.
"we won the war, Wal-Mart and Macy's and all the big stores are saying, "Merry Christmas," and they've stopped ordering their employees not to say it -- most of them."
And if I move my arms in time with the waves as they come ashore, it looks like I'm controlling them, too. You are truly 'Master of the Universe'. Great job Bill!Congratulations and keep up your important work!
to turn something nice like the holiday season into something vicious and divisive. Nice work, Bill-O.
I haven't received my latest dispatch from headquarters, but I'm still out here in the trench I dug in the Mall parking lot awaiting your orders. I see mall employees unloading canisters of mustard gas from my forward position. ACLU members are waiting to assault our troops with copies of that dreaded US Constitution in case we're lucky enough to break through the enemies lines. There are several of their bi-planes circling overhead. When do we attack, sir?
Happy Holidays, you fascist bastard.
To botch another war? The War on Drugs, the Iraq War, and now the War on Christmas.
Since Swill O'Blithely's brain has cut and run from his head, he should follow its example and cut and run from his detour through the delusional realms of rightwing paranoia.