Jessica

Vozel

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December 17, 2007

Bill O’Reilly and the Phony ‘War on Christmas’

As someone who spends an inordinate amount of time looking at, talking about and arranging words, I usually recognize the importance of linguistics and how the words we use affect us as well as reflect our society. But Bill O’Reilly and Focus on the Family are making a ridiculously overblown issue about the use (or non-use) of one word: Christmas.

Focus on the Family has released its “Attack on Christmas 2007” list. Carrie Gordon Earll, spokesperson for the group, appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor” to discuss it. This list essentially tracks most major retailers and evaluates which word or words they use to describe the holiday season. “The Good” retailers unabashedly mention Christmas in their stores and advertisements.  “The Bad” ones make “only token references” and “The Ugly” retailers “censor Christmas” by using the all-encompassing term “holiday.” Some lucky retailers are branded with making “improvements” if they pepper their marketing materials with some mention of “Christmas” where they didn’t before. Of course, O’Reilly and Focus on the Family take credit for such transformations. 

These are the terms – or rather one term and its use or avoidance – by which they evaluate a retailer’s morality? What about human rights violations, sweat shops and corporate greed? Wal-Mart made the Focus on the Family’s “Good” list, and has pumped out some heart-warming television commercials this season (like the one where cashiers flash their “aisle open” lights to the tune of “Carol of the Bells” and smile at the magic of it all) but the financial compensation for the store’s workers is well-known and certainly doesn’t allow for someone working on a Wal-Mart wage to provide their family with a decent holiday without going into debt to do so. And if the disgruntled looks on the faces of cashiers who were swamped with customers at 11 p.m. last night (full disclosure: my friend needed a last minute box of crackers for her office party) were any indication, rather than basking in the glow of their “aisle open” lights, they were counting down the days until the holiday season is over. 

Interestingly, Bill O’Reilly granted a reprieve to Barnes and Noble despite their presence on “The Ugly” list, because the Riggio brothers who own the chain are, as he said in August, “good guys and are doing the right thing.” He then went on to say “Corporate dignity is important and never ridiculous.” After saying “I’m not going to come down hard on Barnes and Noble,” O’Reilly thanked his audience for purchasing his “Culture Warrior” – a book conveniently available for purchase at a Barnes and Noble near you. Maybe we should start evaluating book retailers by their decision to sell or not sell O’Reilly’s books and branding them accordingly.

After Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) House resolution that calls for a recognition of “the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith,” Bill O’Reilly declared the battle on Christmas “won” and bragged that his show’s recognition of the “war” that he created was “one of the most important things we’ve done.” Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Washington) opposed the resolution, which calls for a discussion of the tenets of the Christian faith in the classroom, among other things, and pointed out Republican hypocrisy: “While the Republicans are passing a resolution celebrating Christmas, the president was vetoing health care for children. There’s a little bit of irony going on around here.”

It’s all right, supposedly, that children are going without medical care this season, as long as the cashiers at Kmart greet them with “Merry Christmas” and not “Happy Holidays.”

What’s next? Larger tax breaks for corporations that use the word “Christmas”? The last thing we need is government involvement in this whole manufactured, publicity-garnering “war.” Rep. King insisted that our country is founded on Christian principles, but it seems as though it’s not the actual principles that matter. If they did, Christian groups like FOTF would consider a retailer’s human rights violations before tackling the issue of who uses the terms “Christmas tree” in their marketing materials.

If Focus on the Family and Bill O’Reilly were truly concerned with families this holiday, they would advocate for SCHIP and evaluate retailers by the way they treat their employees and obtain their goods, not by some ridiculous standard that has insignificant effect on a family’s quality of life.

© 2007 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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