O'Reilly:"...nearly half the country thinks Christmas is under siege. "

[sabra]

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/nbc_news_claims_war_on_christmas_made_up_oreilly_responds_to_attack_30731.asp


"NBC News Claims War on Christmas Made Up:" O'Reilly Responds To "Attack"

On Tuesday's Factor, Bill O'Reilly took aim at NBC News, and in particular, Josh Mankiewicz's commentary on Sunday's Dateline. Referring to the "nutty war on Christmas thing," Mankiewicz said the "talking heads" who are "so obsessed with that war" are really just obsessed with "finding ways to attract more attention to themselves." (He also played David Letterman's bit about 60 percent crap.)

O'Reilly retorted: "According to that analysis on NBC News, the war on Christmas is a, quote, 'laughable lie,' unquote. Well, I guess they missed the Gallup poll that said 69 percent of Americans opposed dropping the greeting 'Merry Christmas' and nearly half the country thinks Christmas is under siege. Why is that laughable?" He asked Bob Kohn, author of the book "Journalistic Fraud."

[NorCalDem]

1. See, 60% of what O'Reilly says IS crap!

Letterman was right (although my guess would be somewhere around 90% or higher) :D

[Initech]

9. 60% is underestimating!

Even 90% is underestimating! It's more like 95 - 99% of what Jackass O'Reilly says is crap!

[papau]

20. This 100% crap - the use of an on line "poll" at O'Reilly's website is

a bit much. But this Gallup poll needs info on the structure of the questions and order of asking.

As far as I can tell Gallup never asked the under siege question


http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:G3LMgYkOF0cJ:www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm%3FcolumnsName%3Dbor+Gallup+poll+Christmas+is+under+siege&hl=en

A new Gallup Poll taken on the nonexistent Christmas controversy says that 69 percent of Americans feel replacing "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" is a bad thing. Only 3 percent of Americans object to hearing or seeing the words "Merry Christmas."

http://poll.gallup.com/content/?ci=20458

December 15, 2005
"Happy Holidays" Rings Hollow for Most Americans
One-third bothered by the generic greeting

by Lydia Saad

Most Americans think the trend toward saying "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" at Christmastime is a change for the worse. But is it therefore a bad marketing decision for retailers to greet customers this way? Gallup finds some evidence of a consumer backlash, as 32% of Americans say …

[FreedomAngel82]

27. I'd say 99%

[kick-ass-bob]

2. I wouldn't drop 'Merry Christmas'

and the war on Christmas IS a laugable lie.

dumbfuck. :eyes:

[ret5hd]

well, half the country also has a below average i.q. (nt)

[0rganism]

18. technically, it's "half are below median"

but the median and the average are probably very close in this case.

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. "[N]early half the country thinks Christmas is under siege"

Once, most people in the world thought the earth was flat. That didn't make it so.

Hey, Mr. O`Lielly! Can you say, "Argumentum ad populum?"

[sakabatou]

4. I'd like to see that Gallup poll

and it's breakdown. If it exists at all.

[barbtries]

17. me too

so i looked: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/20/poll.season/

[LisaM]

5. What does the Paris Business Review say?

That's my main news source. I certainly hope they are on top of this major story.

[leveymg]

6. Maybe 2% of the country has even heard of this ridiculous crap.

"Nearly half the country think Christmas is under seige." Yah, like some fraction of 2 percent is close to 50 percent. Orwell warned that even mathematics isn't safe from political lies.

Lies, damned lies, and O'Reilly.

[napi21]

7. Didn't anyone tell him IT'S JANUARY!!!!!

For God sake, the Holidays are OVER for another year! Put this damn subject back on the shelf already!

[sabra]

10. to give O'Reilly some credit (just a little) - NBC did attack his lunacy

on Sunday's Dateline.

[napi21]

14. I didn't see Dateline, but I've questioned his lunacy too!

There's lots of reasons why too. It's NOT only the Christmas thing!

[acmavm]

15. Wow, that's EXACTLY what I was going to post. Glad I read

them all before I did.

[DanCa]

8. America is under siege by Bill O'reilly.

How the hell do these people get on the air?

[azmouse]

11. Isn't it time to start the War on Easter?

[Bill McBlueState]

12. they need better poll questions

These questions would determine whether there's a war on Christmas:

(asked of those who celebrate Christmas)

1. This past Christmas season, were you at any time prevented from using the holiday greeting of your choice?
2. Were you at any time penalized for using the holiday greeting of your choice?

If the majority answer yes to either question, there's evidence for a "war on Christmas." Does anyone really think that would happen?

[arbusto_baboso]

13. And in 1860, wasn't nearly half the country in favor of slavery???

Even if O'Liely isn't completely full of crap on this one (and we all know the unlikelihood of THAT!), what the fuck do NUMBERS ever prove???

[rpgamerd00d]

16. Since when is 50% of a poll = 50% of the population of the USA?

O'lielly is a Dumbass.

[VaYallaDawg]

19. Bill's brain cells (if there are any) must be starting to splutter by now.

[onenote]

21. O'Reilly ought to look at the polls he cites -- including FoxNews polls

I'm not aware of any Gallup poll on the "war on Christmas". However, there was a FoxNews poll taken at the end of November. While it found that 59 percent of the respondents believed that "Christianity is under attack in the United States today" (a wonderfully ambiguous question that might well be thought by some respondents as referring to the threat of terrorist attacks by Muslims), it found that only 42 percent agreed (and 48 percent DISAGREED) with the statement that "there is a war on Christmas in the US today." And it found, by a 49 to 45 percent margin, that people were NOT offended by stores that instruct employees not to say 'Merry Christmas' and make it a policy to specifically not use the words 'Merry Christmas' in advertising and promotions?"

So as usual Bill's head is placed firmly up his ass.

onenote


http://www.pollingreport.com/religion.htm

[The White Tree]

22. I love how these guys pontificate about everyone else

and at the same time when doing it are actually using the same techniques they accuse other people of.

For example in the transcript David Letterman's quoted as saying: I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap.

So the guest who supposedly wrote a book called Journalistic Fraud and should have some idea what it is, immediately commits journalistic fraud in essence, by totally misrepresenting the tone of the what Letterman said and it's suitableness to Letterman's interview with Reilly to fit the guests own narrow interpretations and beliefs.

To whit, he says about Letterman's comment:

KOHN: They cut that out. And a really interesting thing about the David Letterman interview was when he -- you know, he said that, like, you just said, 60 percent of what you say is crap.
O'REILLY: Right.

KOHN: And then he admitted on the air that he doesn't watch your show.
O'REILLY: Right.

KOHN: Well, that's like me saying the David Letterman show sucks because I read a review written by Jay Leno that says it sucks. You know? I mean, it's silly.

In reality, what happened on Letterman's show is nothing like what Kohn stated here. David Letterman was having a conversation with Reilly and questioning him and his comment can be taken in the context of the conversations as:

We,ve been talking a bit about some things and based on this conversation, as well as things I've heard about you from other people, "I have a feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap". Letterman actually had the courage to say it to the guy face to face and after listening to him in his own words try to explain himself. Whether he watched the show or not was immaterial, he a face to face assessment of the O'Reilly to draw on in addition to what other people say about him.

A more appropriate analogy would be if Kohn read a review of Letterman's show saying it sucked, then watched it on TV and thought it sucked and then went around saying the David Letterman Show sucks.

Ironically, a more apt application of Kohn's analogy about reading a review of something and then telling people it sucks because of the review is himself. He is stating as fact that there is a media bias out and asking the audience to believe him, even though we have not had the opportunity to sit down with all the raw research and analysis that he claims makes it so. In essence he is the Jay Leno telling us to hate David Letterman because his book says to.

Sorry for the long ranting post. I know these guys understand this game but it really sickens me that they have no integrity and yet claim total integrity and decry anyone they don't agree with if they are not absolutely perfect in what they say. Then they go on to complain about the decline in morals in society.

[rurallib]

23. probably corresponds to that 50% that scores below 100

on IQ tests. Betting olielly, hannitypants and other fuxthenewsers are in there.

[onenote]

24. found the poll -- big surprise -- O'Leilly misrepresents

According to O'Reilly, Gallup found that 69 percent of Americans opposed dropping the greeting "Merry Christmas". Sorry Bill, what the poll actually asked is what greeting a person would use when meeting someone during the holiday season: Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas. Big shock -- most people say Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays. Which proves nothing about how they feel when someone says Happy Holidays to them and certainly doesn't represent the number of people "opposed to dropping the greeting Merry Christmas". Hell, I'm Jewish and when I greet someone who I know celebrates Christmas on Christmas day, I say MErry Christmas. When I meet them on December 28, I say Happy Holidays. On January 1, I say Happy New Year. Even if O'Leilly had described the poll properly it wouldn't prove squat, but of course he had to misrepresent it because, after all, he is Bill O'Leilly.

onenote

[papau]

25. nice find - and no under siege question - so Bill lies a lot!

:-)

[FreedomAngel82]

26. Is he STILL on that crap?

Christmas is OVER O'Reilly!