O’Reilly becomes a parody of himself

December 14, 2005

It’s been a few days since we last checked in with Bill O’Reilly and his clearly unhealthy Christmas fixation, but there were a few developments that warrant attention. And probably some professional help for poor Bill.

O’Reilly, for example, told his radio audience a few days ago that there are no “spiritual” Christmas stamps available from the Post Office this year.

“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.”

I’m not sure how O’Reilly defines “spiritual,” but the stamp of “Madonna and child” doesn’t exactly look secular to me.

The same day, O’Reilly told his TV and radio audiences that a school district in Texas told students they couldn’t wear red and green because they were Christmas colors,” which he described as “fascism.” The local superintendent issued a statement explaining that the school district “does not restrict students or staff from wearing certain color clothes during holiday times or any other school days,” and added that the district’s attorney has requested that O’Reilly retract the statement. They’re still waiting.

And as if these weren’t enough, O’Reilly also told his followers that officials in a Michigan town had announced their opposition to clothing with Christmas colors.

“In Saginaw, Michigan, the township opposes red and green clothing on anyone. [Laughing] In Saginaw Township, they basically said, ‘Anybody, we don’t want you to wear red or green.'”

Surprise, surprise, O’Reilly was wrong about Saginaw too.

I can appreciate it when someone feels strongly about an issue, and if O’Reilly wants to go on some kind of anti-“Happy Holidays” crusade, he’s welcome to do so. But isn’t it a little embarrassing to have a national media personality making things up on the air? There have to be less ridiculous ways of enjoying the holiday season.

John Stewart on the Daily Show caught some of these same points.

Also, O’Reilly’s assertion that non-christians should not be offended if they are offered the greeting ‘Merry Christmas’

but that Christians SHOULD be offended if they are offered the greetings ‘Happy Holidays’ or ‘Season’s Greetings’.

Double Standard??

  • CB, you write as if you exect the truth from Mr. Falafel. This whole pile of dung the Right-wingers are dumping on Christmas is clearly designed to stir the Base. Got to keep them feeling opressed, you know.

    It is so sad that they have to politicize everything, and it is un-American, too.

    I guess they (these hateful creeps like O’Liely) really don’t believe anything except staying in power. They certainly are ignoring, no, are working against the “indivisible” part of the pledge to the flag.

  • I may be, no, I AM naive, but how could his producers condone such statements? I mean, really, isn’t there some point that once reached, enough is enough?

  • Of course the halfwit doesn’t know about that particular stamp, that he got Saginaw situation wrong, and got into a spat with a Texas town. He has mindless GOP drone lackeys doing he shopping and research, is too stupid to double check before going live, and (like most conservatives) never, ever going to admit he was wrong for anything.

    He is a hack, and a bad one at that. I would ask why Faux keeps someone so stupid but then I remember this is Faux.

  • A quiz. Name the person who’s column today begins:

    The effort by some cable TV hosts and ministers to force commercial establishments into wishing everyone a “Merry Christmas” might be more objectionable to the One who is the reason for the season than the “Happy Holidays” mantra required by some store managers

    Give up? It’s Jerry Falwell’s former lieutenant at the Moral Majority Cal Thomas. Typically, these guy’s are all on the same page. It maybe that O’Reilly’s break with reality may have him concerned about his own credibility.

  • Take heart, look at this Weekly Standard article attacking the Methodist Church (America’s 3rd largest) for not being conservative or nationalist enough. It looks like the neocons and fundamentalists are really circling the wagons.: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/454dhfdb.asp

    “Why are the bishops of America’s third-largest church condemning the United States for attempting to build democracy in Iraq?”

    “Abolitionism and prohibitionism, as the theology became more liberal, morphed into liberation theology and hostility to Western culture and the United States in particular.”

    “But the church’s bishops, when they speak politically, sound surprisingly more like Michael Moore or Noam Chomsky”

    The article singles out the “church elite”, such as “The Methodists, or at least their church elites”, “Mainline church elites moved towards pacifism “, and “The church elites’ hostility to capitalism”.

    Weirdly, Bush and Cheney are both Methodists. And Methodists are considering sanctifying gay marriages, so Bush is seeking to ban a practice his own church may soon start.

    Bizarre, but reason enough to have a happy holiday.

  • Here’s my problem…I just love watching O’Reilly get all wound up about stuff like this, but I can’t stomach the rest of his ‘show’ for long enough to catch it live…

  • Most of us here have used the acronym IOKIYAR whenever we see the Rethugs doing something outrageous — corruption, incompetence, lying, etc. — and it gets treated as “business as usual” by the CCCP.

    Now we have Waffle Fallafel O’Reilly lying his pants off, again. Just one more example of the “It’s O K If You Are Republican” syndrome. The best way to accurately portray these scoundrels is to call them for what they are: they are Lying.Fucking.Bastards. Or LFBs for short.

    So I propose that everytime we are tempted to react to yet another Rethug outrage with the exasperated “IOKIYAR,” that we instead say “LFB.” That is what they are: Lying.Fucking.Bastards. = LFBs

    LFB is a much better “frame” for the behavior of these thugs. And rather than admitting/accepting the double standard by (in effect) giving the thugs a pass for their unacceptable behavior, we would tell the public that the Rethugs are Lying, that they are Bastards, and the F-bomb will make the “framing” stick.

    O’Reilly’s lying and mendacity is NOT okay, and he is in serious need of being spanked for this. Why not flood his sponsors and syndicators (including Faux News) with emails, and including the LFB label in them? If nothing else, Faux News will get the point that O’Reilly’s actions are NOT acceptable and he should be sanctioned and/or dismissed.

    Okay, say it with me…LFB…LFB…LFB…LFB…

    (I feel better already!)

  • I am a 30 year resident and there has never been a ban on green & red clothing. If Bill O’Reilly wants to pick a fight with Plano, he should pick a more meaningful topic such as the suicide rate (that’s been subverted locally because of the 80’s label) and drug abuse at the schools. Or the fact that the town has been overtaken by revolving transplants living on extravagent credit limits and the county/city has one of the highest bankruptcy and foreclosure rates in the state.

    He needs to fire his fact checker for something so trite and give his holiday rant a rest.

  • The Madonna by Manaco to which you linked has the date of 2004 in the lower left-hand corner. It may be that O’Reilly’s complaint is that there isn’t a 2005 religious stamp. I think the reason for this is that a rate increase goes into effect next month; therefore a 37-cent issued in December would have a very short shelf life.

  • My Post Office had a full range of stamps available, all shown on a poster. I don’t remember them all, but I picked the Christmas cookies; which were more secular than some of the others.

    If Bill is upset with the stamps, shouldn’t he be complaining about the Republicans not doing anything about it? Because they are the government.

  • Why would that be embarrassing? Limbaugh’s been pulling bogus statistics out of his ass for 20 years.

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