2008 Woodie Awards
OUT OF MY HEAD: Merry Christmas...or, you know, whatever.
Joe Killian
Issue date: 12/6/05 Section: Opinions
Full disclosure: A few years ago I almost ended up on the Bill O'Reilly Show.
It's not something to which I ever aspired - largely because Bill usually treats guests with whom he disagrees with the sort of warmth and courtesy usually reserved for a cheap blow up doll. But some friends and I had raised the money to bring Village Voice sex columnist Tristan Taormino back to UNCG after she'd been slimed by conservatives and school administrators - and Bill wanted to talk about it and his producers contacted us. The Carolinian staff was going to be in New York for a journalism conference anyway so I figured, "Why not?"
Comically, the piece fell apart when Taormino asked that the show at least play a short clip of one of her tame speaking engagements so that O'Reilly couldn't lead his audience to believe she was putting on some sort of live sex show at colleges all across America. Show even thirty seconds of what was actually happening to counter his ill-informed tirade? O'Reilly passed. And, secretly, I was a little relieved.
It was with that experience in mind that I watched with amusement as O'Reilly opened this year's holiday season with a rant on "the attack on Christmas."
In case you missed this one, O'Reilly and a few other professional conservative celebrities have been balking at stores wishing customers "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" and public schools and other government institutions choosing secular Christmas images (Frosty, Christmas trees, snowflakes). Yes, this is a ridiculous argument that's hardly worth having. Yes, there are many more interesting issues on which someone with that sort of audience could be spending his time. But, O'Reilly insists, separating Christ from Christmas is just the first step in an evil and wide-reaching liberal conspiracy to do away with the democratic political tradition in America all together.
O'Reilly on the plot against Christmas, from the November 28th broadcast of his syndicated radio show:
It's not something to which I ever aspired - largely because Bill usually treats guests with whom he disagrees with the sort of warmth and courtesy usually reserved for a cheap blow up doll. But some friends and I had raised the money to bring Village Voice sex columnist Tristan Taormino back to UNCG after she'd been slimed by conservatives and school administrators - and Bill wanted to talk about it and his producers contacted us. The Carolinian staff was going to be in New York for a journalism conference anyway so I figured, "Why not?"
Comically, the piece fell apart when Taormino asked that the show at least play a short clip of one of her tame speaking engagements so that O'Reilly couldn't lead his audience to believe she was putting on some sort of live sex show at colleges all across America. Show even thirty seconds of what was actually happening to counter his ill-informed tirade? O'Reilly passed. And, secretly, I was a little relieved.
It was with that experience in mind that I watched with amusement as O'Reilly opened this year's holiday season with a rant on "the attack on Christmas."
In case you missed this one, O'Reilly and a few other professional conservative celebrities have been balking at stores wishing customers "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" and public schools and other government institutions choosing secular Christmas images (Frosty, Christmas trees, snowflakes). Yes, this is a ridiculous argument that's hardly worth having. Yes, there are many more interesting issues on which someone with that sort of audience could be spending his time. But, O'Reilly insists, separating Christ from Christmas is just the first step in an evil and wide-reaching liberal conspiracy to do away with the democratic political tradition in America all together.
O'Reilly on the plot against Christmas, from the November 28th broadcast of his syndicated radio show:
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