Fox News Watch's Gabler: Fox News "pumping Christmas war"

Fox News Watch panelist Gabler: Fox News "pumping" Christmas "war"

Media writer Neil Gabler, a regular Fox news panelist, asserted that Fox News hosts Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and John Gibson are "demagogues" who seek to "rally the masses" with their talk of a purported effort to suppress public recognition of the Christmas holiday. On the December 3 edition of Fox News Watch, Gabler said of those making such accusations: "They'll do it every Christmas. They did it last Christmas; they'll do it next Christmas." Later in the segment, Gabler stated: "The media, particularly Fox media, has been pumping the hell out of this thing."

Gabler's comments came during a segment that an off-screen announcer previewed by asking, "Is there a Grinch taking the holly jolly out of Christmas? Why has this holy season become a target of the liberal media?" Early in the discussion, Gabler remarked that the battle over public acknowledgement of Christmas "is being called a war ... in certain places." During the segment, American University professor and Fox News contributor Jane Hall specifically criticized O'Reilly and Gibson for their emphasis of the issue:

From the December 3 edition of Fox News Watch:

GABLER: Now let's talk about the elephant in the room; let's talk about the media.

BURNS: Just a minute, Neal; if it started in 1921 --

GABLER: It's not a story.

BURNS: If I can just --

GABLER: It was a demagogic campaign.

BURNS: If I can just give three examples right now in different parts of the country --

GABLER: We're 300 million people. You know, I can give you --

BURNS: But there are -- just a minute, there are more than three examples to give --

GABLER: Three incidents of chicken pox doesn't make an epidemic.

HALL: But what is the media -- where is the media angle?

GABLER: The media angle right here -- Look, I want to talk about the media angle, because we've avoided it; it's the elephant in the room -- it's Fox News. Come on. It's O'Reilly; it's Hannity; it's Gibson. They're demagogues who realize that at Christmastime, you can -- you can --

GABLER: You rally the masses on this issue.

GABLER: They'll do it every Christmas. They did it last Christmas; they'll do it next Christmas.

BURNS: I spend this whole show sitting back most of the time. I don't think it is demagoguery to point out that there are people who are themselves being demagogues by trying to take away the worship terminology of 95 percent of Americans.

GABLER: Eric, we are at war. There's the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. There's an AIDS crisis. And you're worried about whether people are saying "Merry Christmas" or not?

BURNS: No.

GABLER: What world do you live in?

BURNS: Hey, Neal, it's one issue, and it's the issue that's the subject of this top -- that's the subject of this segment.

GABLER: And the media have been pumping it, and that's my point.

PINKERTON: All right.

GABLER: The media, particularly Fox media, has been pumping the hell out of this thing.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200512060002

Better clean out your desk, Neal...your gig at FAUX is about to expire...

The other woman wasn't too bad either. She could've spoken up like the other guy though. They're only doing this to rile up the fundie base and also to keep them from thinking about other important issues such as Iraq and the economy.

Why, yes, tuvor. Check the link, you idiot. :blush:

think this is stupid as well.

So Fox isn't as savvy as they think they are about their 'base'.

<<Fox isn't as savvy as they think they are about their 'base'.>>

or perhaps they don't honestly believe the viewers views matter because they will keep
creating stories wherethere are none.

it is real if it is on tv, right?