Fox & Friends is not exactly noted for its spirit of tolerance. But, in a classic case of projection, today's Fox & Friends featured Fox's resident racist, homphobic, and very Christian bigot, Todd Starnes, for a biased discussion of how the liberal PC Culture's "intolerance" is hurting Christmas.
The segment was part of the patented Fox & Friends "Fight for Faith" series. (Faith = conservative Christianity) Jesus BFF, a grinning Anna Kooiman, her skirt pushed up towards heaven, preached it: "If you are tired of people trying to take Christ out of Christmas, listen to what our friend Todd Starnes has to say." Video of Starnes' Fox Christmas special was shown in which Starnes preached that "we believe that Jesus is the reason and we don't say Happy Holidays [take that, godless Jews] we say Merry Christmas." In case you didn't get the message, the banner read "Reason for the Season, Todd Starnes Puts Christ into Christmas." (Yeah, nothing says Jesus like hatred of those who don't believe what we do...)
Another Jesus BFF, Brian "all terrorists are Muslims" Kilmeade, introduced Starnes for a Fox & Friends "update on another war on Christmas battle." (Notice how he says the phrase as fact) To Kilmeade's question about whether the war on Christmas has been won, Starnes said that "we're still fighting it" and that "this year there have been more battles most of them waged in our public schools." The banner framed the propaganda with a tip of the hat to a famous Fox meme: "Politically Correct Christmas, PC Police Take Away the Reason for the Season."
Starnes spoke about how, at a Bangor Maine high school, a teacher was told to take her pink, "Hello Kitty" Christmas tree out of her classroom, but, praise Jesus she has been allowed to put it back. (So,uh, a pink, "Hello Kitty" tree is a Christian symbol?) Ironically, Kooiman followed with this strange non-sequitor: "Its one thing to be tolerant and diverse, but to force religion in a place where it doesn't belong." (WTF?) Starnes quoted the "Hello Kitty" tree teacher: "It's almost as if they're sucking the joy out of the season and that's a pretty good description of what liberals are doing all across the country."
Working in some nice, Christmas Fox News Islamophobia, Kilmeade asked why Minnesota students were singing "Allah Akbar" at a Christmas concert. (Big deal in the right wing hate-o-sphere). In totally misrepresenting the case, Starnes said "can you imagine you're there at a Christmas concert and little Johnny and Susie start chanting Allah Akbar." Kooiman gasped. Starnes whined, "this is part of an inclusive holiday concert." The banner asked "Christmas Carols? Students Sing Allahu Akbar at Concert." He claimed that "the people were upset about that" and lamented that the school is defending it. He noted that Ramadan is later in the year and asked if they will be singing Christmas carols at that time. Kooiman: "Let's keep them accountable."
The rest of the segment was spent pimping Starnes Fox Christian Christmas special, "the USO show in the war on Christmas."
As in all Fox & Friends persecuted Christian/Christmas pieces, the truth was inconvenient. Nobody mentioned that only 10 parents complained about the Arabic song and that most of the opposition was from folks with no connection to the district. Nobody mentioned that the song was sung during the audience participation part of the concert. In other words, kids weren't, as Starnes indicated, erupting into scary Muslim war chants. The Arabic phrase, which means God is Great, was part of a song. Nobody was being forced to sing. Starnes didn't mention that the program, done for the second year, included Jewish and Christian songs which were meant to reflect the various cultures of students attending the school.
But hey, in the War on Christmas, truth is always the first casualty!