It's that time of year again. When the conservatives post "War on Christmas" tripe all over your Facebook newsfeed.
This year's article started as a Fox News opinion piece: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/05/school-bans-christmas-trees-colors-red-green/
Supposedly a school in the Frisco school district was having a holiday party that banned 'Merry Christmas', Christmas trees, and the colors red and green. It's pretty much the holy grail of "War on Christmas" stories. Think of the children!
It seemed a little too good to be true, so I tried to find other news sources that were covering the story. But every single news article I found could trace its source for information back to that very same Fox News article:
http://inagist.com/all/408817627578896384/
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t1009590/
http://conservativehideout.com/2013/12/07/nichols-elementary-school-frisco-texas-bans-christmas-trees-even-colors-red-green/
There was also a suspicious trend with all these news sources that were covering the story... hmm.
So aside from conservative blogs, religious blogs, or racist blogs, there really wasn't any well known, legitimate news source covering the story.
And then, in a funny twist of fate, I stumbled upon a story from 2005 in which Bill O'Reilly falsely reported a similar story. I was just about to give up my search and write this off as some stupid misunderstanding or hoax, but without proof, when this article single-handedly became my impetus to resume my search. Surely if I could find this gem, I could dig up more.
And that's when I found the Frisco Independent School District's official response to Fox News' accusations:
http://www.friscoisd.org/news/2013/12/05/holidays-in-schools
Enjoy the read, guys. And tl;dr? THERE IS NO WAR ON CHRISTMAS
This year's article started as a Fox News opinion piece: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/05/school-bans-christmas-trees-colors-red-green/
Supposedly a school in the Frisco school district was having a holiday party that banned 'Merry Christmas', Christmas trees, and the colors red and green. It's pretty much the holy grail of "War on Christmas" stories. Think of the children!
It seemed a little too good to be true, so I tried to find other news sources that were covering the story. But every single news article I found could trace its source for information back to that very same Fox News article:
http://inagist.com/all/408817627578896384/
http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t1009590/
http://conservativehideout.com/2013/12/07/nichols-elementary-school-frisco-texas-bans-christmas-trees-even-colors-red-green/
There was also a suspicious trend with all these news sources that were covering the story... hmm.
So aside from conservative blogs, religious blogs, or racist blogs, there really wasn't any well known, legitimate news source covering the story.
And then, in a funny twist of fate, I stumbled upon a story from 2005 in which Bill O'Reilly falsely reported a similar story. I was just about to give up my search and write this off as some stupid misunderstanding or hoax, but without proof, when this article single-handedly became my impetus to resume my search. Surely if I could find this gem, I could dig up more.
And that's when I found the Frisco Independent School District's official response to Fox News' accusations:
http://www.friscoisd.org/news/2013/12/05/holidays-in-schools
Enjoy the read, guys. And tl;dr? THERE IS NO WAR ON CHRISTMAS
No comments:
Post a Comment