It's that blessed time of the year. Stores and houses are festooned with lights. Inflatable Santas bob alongside garish Nativity scenes on front lawns. Treacly holiday music assaults the ears. Folks filled with the spirit of the season buy lots of Chinese crap that they can't afford. And on Fox "News," Christian victimhood takes on a whole new meaning as part of the annual Fox Christian confection otherwise known as the "War on Christmas" which allows persecuted Christians to whine about how evil secularists who are ruining Christmas. Much of last year's Fox war coverage centered on the "outrage" over the RI governor designating the state tree as a holiday tree. (His GOP predecessor did the same but Fox kept that mum). RI Tea Party diva GOP State Rep Doreen Costa appeared on Fox & Friends to whine. And just like Santa, she has returned this year for more Christmas whining.
After reporting the *back story, former Miss America and Christian culture warrior queen Gretchen Carlson was all agitated as she referenced a "ridiculous situation" in RI. She asked RI GOP state representative Doreen Costa "what the heck is happening in RI." Carlson was referring to the fact that, as of today, RI Governor Lincoln Chafee's office hasn't scheduled a lighting of the "holiday tree," the designation of which, last year, caused a huge uproar on right wing media, especially Fox News. Costa (one of 6 Republicans in a 75 member House), who on last year's Fox & Friends expressed her outrage about the holiday tree, said that there had been some confusion about the lighting of the tree and that nobody knows when the lighting will take place.
Gretchen recalled how, last year, Costa "defended" Christmas by having her own Christmas tree lighting. Costa said that she's doing the same thing this year in her state house office. Gretch, in her most outraged voice, asserted that "A lot of people, for whatever reason, will look at this interview today and say, Gretchen Carlson and Doreen Costa are nuts. They're so nuts because they think there's this made up war on Christmas. We're not nuts, are we? There is a war on Christmas!"
Hate to break it to ya, Gretch; but you and Costa are batshit crazy and the war on Christmas is part of the psychosis!
Wall of genius Costa proclaimed that the war on Christmas is real and she knows that because she gets correspondence from all over the country. Wall of genius that she is, she said that if people don't like Christmas, maybe they shouldn't take the day off. (Uh, Some businesses actually close). She asked why Christmas is "attacked" because "we don't attack any other religion, you can believe and worship what you want, so let us be."
After Costa said that Christians don't attack anybody, Carlson said that Christmas was "made an official holiday to honor the birth of somebody called Jesus Christ. So it's unbelievable that we try to cover that up." Scowling, she asked: "What is the governor's intention. Lincoln Chafee is now on a role, he's gonna be the official PC governor of RI and that's what he's going to be remembered for." (Carlson doesn't live in RI so how the hell does she know what Chafee has done or will do?) The chyron framed the Fox message: "Fear of Christmas, when political correctness trumps tradition."
Gretch provided a little hissy homily:"Why is it in our society today that people who have personal convictions and traditional values that they want to hold on to, near and dear to their hearts and they want them for their kids too? Why are we the ones who are under attack?"
When Costa said that Christians don't attack anybody, she certainly wasn't talking about Fox News where Islam is, as Media Matters points out, "bashed with impunity." The Fox coverage of the so called "Ground Zero Mosque" wasn't exactly a study in tolerance. While atheists aren't part of a religion, their lack of allegiance to the god worshipped by Carlson and Costa is a source of ongoing condemnation on Fox "News." But if Costa and Carlson thinks that Christians right to worship is being restricted, they are nuts. No churches have been closed. There have been no pogroms of Christians and executions of clergy. The RI tree lighting ceremony does not involve Christian worship so what's the big deal?
But what's worse is that Doreen Costa and Gretchen Carlson don't understand that focusing on the name of the state tree and the day of its lighting, while there are far greater issues to deal with such as the folks in RI who are hurting, is the real offense and as such runs counter to the religion that they are defending. Rep. Costa seems to be more concerned about her own publicity rather than the needs of her constituents and that's not really the true meaning of Christmas. Ya think! Nice to see that Fox News is there to help spread Doreen Costa's Christmas cheer! The baby Jesus is clapping his hands!
*When she mentioned how protesters "stormed" last year's tree lighting, she neglected to say that they drowned out a children's choir.