And does this mean that once again Fox News has surrendered its urgent War on Christmas? (Show some backbone, people.)
Specifically, I'm referring to Fox News' equivalent of its nightly newscast, Special Report, and how the show has been completely derelict in recent years in reporting about the birth of Jesus Christ, as well as doing news pieces on the true meaning of Christmas.
I noticed this deplorable trend only after reading a new conservative media report, Christmas Without Christ, which criticizes the network evening news shows for not mentioning the deity often enough in its Christmas reports. Put together by the Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute, the survey scolded (liberal!) news teams at the networks:
The true message of Christmas, the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ, has simply been ignored by the mainstream media.
Instead, Brent Bozell's crack staff found that most of the so-called Christmas news reports dealt with the “holiday's impact on the economy, weather, travel, retail sales,” etc.
The conservative report concluded the nets ought to:
Talk about Christ during Christmas. The effort to make God obsolete in evening news reports about Christmas is simply futile when one considers that, according to a 2008 Pew Research Poll, nearly 80 percent of Americans consider themselves to be Christian.
Interview Christians and those who celebrate Christmas by remembering its true meaning.
Go to various churches to find stories about Christmas.
Cover more positive stories about the spirit of giving and those who reflect Christ during this special season.
But here's the thing, if Media Research Center had bothered to look back at the transcripts for Fox News' Special Report, it would have found pretty much the exact same trend: Very few stories about Christ as the messiah. Very few reports about “the true meaning” of Christmas. And very few reports originating in churches.
What the researches would have found though, were Special Report news references to Christmas regarding retail sales, lighting the national Christmas tree, U.S. troops serving overseas during the Christmas season, and yes, the prerequisite Fox News-sponsored updates about the dopey War on Christmas.
My conclusion: Fox News seems bent on taking the Christ out of Christmas.
UPDATED: And here's your irony alert of the day, as Bozell appears on Fox News this morning to bemoan how the network news shows don't report about the birth of Jesus. (Is that breaking news?) Yet he politely ignores the fact that Fox News itself is guilty of the same dopey Christmas crime Bozell is alleging.