Bill O'Reilly again

Look, I'm sorry to bring you more information about the right-wing's belief in a "war on Christmas" but it's just getting ridiculous. Media Matters has two articles today on Bill O'Reilly's nonsense. His attitude is bad enough. He's also simply lying or at least not bothering to check his facts. First of all, he is claiming that the Post Office is no longer offering a religious Christmas stamp. That is patently false. I just bought two books worth of the Madonna and Child stamp on Monday. That article is entitled "O'Reilly falsely claimed that "spiritual" Christmas stamps are no longer being offered". Here's an excerpt:

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 didn't want a fresh crop of outdated stamps sitting in the drawers for next year," the Post-Gazette reported.

I don't know about you but that just seems sensible. Apparently there's less of a call for them or there wouldn't be so many left over from last year. Why does Bill O'Reilly get incensed about that?

The other article is entitled, "O'Reilly falsely claimed a Texas school district banned red and green clothing, called move "fascism":

On December 9, Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed on both Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor and the nationally syndicated The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly that the Plano Independent School District (Texas) "told students they couldn't wear red and green because they were Christmas colors." He labeled the alleged ban "fascism." On December 12, the school district released an official statement by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Doug Otto refuting O'Reilly's contention:

"The school district does not restrict students or staff from wearing certain color clothes during holiday times or any other school days," noted Dr. Otto, who said that the school district's attorney has requested that Mr. O'Reilly retract the statement.

I don't see how these so-called conservative people live with themselves given their willingness to play fast and loose with the truth.