O'Reilly's "red and green colors prohibited" story DEBUNKED here:

[Lex]

School says O'Reilly fabricated dress code story/b]


http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=10778

E-mail sent to parents in the Plano, TX school district


Dear Plano ISD eNews Subscribers:

On Friday, December 9, on the Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," with Bill O'Reilly and guest Jim Pinkerton, Fox 4 News analyst, it was falsely reported in a segment entitled "More Victories for Christmas" that ...

....."In Plano, Texas, a school told students they couldn't wear red and
green because they are Christmas colors."......

Due to the number of e-mails, inquiries and phone calls to Plano ISD
regarding students "wearing red and green," Superintendent of Schools
Dr. Doug Otto is e-mailing this communication to eNews subscribers (and has posted this message on the PISD website) to assure the school community that this rumor is false.

"The school district does not restrict students or staff from wearing certain color clothes during holiday times or any other school days," noted Dr. Otto, who said that the school district's attorney has requested that Mr. O'Reilly retract the statement.

Dr. Otto said that our attorney requested of Mr. O'Reilly that, in the
future, he ask his fact checkers to do a more thorough job of confirming the facts before he airs them.

"It would be our hope that you would engage in fair and balanced reporting of this nationally recognized school district in the future," PISD's attorney wrote to Mr. O'Reilly.


--------

[Lex]

1. The "Silent Night" story by O'Reilly DEBUNKED here:

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/12/14/silent-night-fraud/


Ridgeway Elementary didn’t change the lyrics to “Silent Night.” What they did was perform a 1988 copyrighted play called “The Little Tree’s Christmas Gift.”


That play actually contains numerous songs about Christmas, including the grand finale, an audience-led group singing of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” The play’s creator, Dwight Elrich, happens to lead the New Covenant Singers of Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.


In fact, “The Little Tree’s Christmas Gift” has been performed in several churches, including the Oakwood Forest Christian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee, the St. Anthony Parish School in Des Moines, Iowa, and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church of Abeline, Texas.


So why are the Silent Night lyrics changed in “Little Tree’s Christmas”? Because the play is about a small, lonely Christmas tree that is told it is “too scraggly, it will never sell.” That character sings the revised lyrics — “Cold in the night, No one in sight, Winter winds whirl and bite” — in a scene lamenting his sad state. The rewording has absolutely nothing to do with “secularizing” the song.

[TheFarseer]

2. but what about the napkins and plates?

They couldn't have red and green napkins and plates!!! Don't you get it!!!

seriously, he's backed off the clothes but can anyone debunk this too? What did they just happen to buy a white plate with Santa Clause hugging a snowman instead?

[Lex]

3. Where did he say that happened? Or was he just fuzzy about

that because it was merely a twist on the "red and green" story that had already been debunked?

[TheFarseer]

6. he's been saying all over the place

paraphrased "OK, I made a mistake about the clothes. They never said clothes, but they wouldn't let the kids have red and green napkins, plates, cups (and so on) because it would be promoting the religious holiday Christmas"

Frankly, I can't even imagine this happening. Lots of things come in red and green and have NOTHING to do with Christmas. I guess John Deere tracors and exit signs are promoting Christmas :eyes:

[tishaLA]

4. yeah he admitted he was wrong about the clothing

But not about the napkins. Wiping cake off your face with appropriately-colored napkins is terribly important, too!

[SiouxJ]

5. He looked like a school kid digging out his crumpled note from mommy

Pathetic O'lielly digging out his folded, crumpled piece of paper with his "proof" of the war on Christmas. What a sap. lol