Stories about banned Christmas carols and employers forbidding the use of “Merry Christmas” in favor of “Happy Holidays” seem to pop up each December. Over the past few days, however, the issue has been moved front and center by a hungry press, with stories popping up in the national media almost daily, and conservative television host Bill O’Reilly running a daily segment titled “Christmas Under Siege.”
But wade through the wall-to-wall coverage of the story, and it becomes apparent that there are only a handful of examples — three, to be exact — being recycled in article after article. Many of these pieces use the same incidents in almost the same way. Some even hit for the cycle, as USA Today did today, referencing all three stories in one shot.
The first heavily cited anecdote comes from New Jersey’s South Orange-Maplewood school district’s decision to ban Christmas carols at school holiday concerts. That story, egged on by conservative opinion columnists, has seen ink in the New York Post, the Washington Times, Daily [UK] Telegraph, Newsday, Mississippi’s Sun Herald, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, just to name a few.
Similarly, at least 27 mainstream newspapers have reported on Macy’s owner Federated Department Stores’ rule forbidding its outlets from using the phrase “Merry Christmas.” Trouble is, the rule doesn’t exist. According to the company’s Web site, its stores have “no policy with regard to the use of specific references to Christmas … This includes using the phrase Merry Christmas if they believe it is appropriate to do so.” But fact never stopped the echo chamber, and in this case reporters continue to parrot Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly, transcribing the complaints of an anti-Macy’s group called the “Committee to Save Merry Christmas,” often with no rebuttal from the store itself.
The third anecdote, cited in roughly 25 papers, revolves around the righteous indignation caused by the City of Denver when it denied a local church’s application to have a float in the city’s holiday parade — although the city notes that it hasn’t allowed religious or politically themed floats in over a decade.
When not flogging the same three stories — two of which are essentially false — to create the appearance of a genuine national trend, the media is busy interviewing the same outraged representatives of a few conservative family groups trying to put the Christ back in Christmas. The Alliance Defense Fund, for example, has been cited in numerous stories in the past week, as has the Rutherford Institute, another conservative group.
We’re reluctant to take the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in this morality play, but in the course of digesting over four dozen of these faux stories, the words “Bah, Humbug!” just kept coming to mind.
So we have a suggestion for all the reporters and editors who are keeping this one alive: Instead of worrying so much about putting Christ back in Christmas, you might start thinking about putting news back in “news reports.”
Paul McLeary is a former CJR staff writer. Since 2008, he has covered the Pentagon for Foreign Policy, Defense News, Breaking Defense, and other outlets. He is currently a defense reporter for Politico.