Grinch-o-Meter Update
Open your gifts on “holiday” morning?
CMI's Grinch-o-meter is spinning again with new stories about people seeking to secularize, trivialize and abolish Christmas.
Usually you won't find mention of The War on Christmas anywhere on television but Fox News. Surprise, surprise -- NBC's Nightly News featured the topic on December 20, and wouldn't you know the story itself registers on the Grinch-o-meter?
NBC reporter John Larson used sound bites from an atheist radio host and Barry Lynn, identified as a “Reverend” with “Americans United.”
This lack of balance had the Grinch-o-meter swinging wildly toward a 10 until Larson finally started talking about some of the ridiculous measures some people are taking to avoid using the word “Christmas.” He included Old Navy's advertisement to “open your gifts on holiday morning” and the city of
Other new Grinch-o-meter ratings:
• Planned Parenthood – the abortion provider – sent out email Christmas cards to its supporters titled “Choice on Earth.” The irony of an abortion provider sending out greetings on a day that celebrates the Birth of Christ is astounding. Grinch-o-meter rating: 10-plus.
• Anyone and everyone, especially Sherri Shepherd and Joy Behar of ABC's The View, who have complained about Mike Huckabee's Christmas commercial because it mentions “Christ” and “Christmas.” Grinch-o-meter rating: 10.
• The Catholic League reports that Hanukkah is celebrated at
On NBC's Nightly News John Larson said “Tis the season for arguing about how to celebrate Christmas.” Indeed it is. And it is the Grinches in the culture who have made Christmas into an argument to begin with. But in the spirit of the season CMI wishes each and every one of them a Merry Christmas and quotes Tiny Tim, “God Bless Us, Everyone.”
Kristen Fyfe is senior writer at the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the
