It makes you seem less intelligent when you don’t have all the information about his position, but make definitive statements.

As I also explained to you, I have no beef with what Bill O’Reilly believes. My post had absolutely nothing to do with what he believes; it was only about what he said. He said “Happy Holidays” is offensive to Christians, which is a stupid thing to say. You say that people do that all the time in the course of an argument, say something they don’t mean. I disagree. The main time that happens is when a person is more interested in arguing than in making his point. It is clear that O’Reilly had it in his mind that he disagreed with everything Nulman had to say, and it came back to bite him when it turned out that there was something he didn’t disagree with, because he didn’t realize he didn’t disagree until he had already disagreed out loud.

And it makes you seem less trustworthy when you conveniently leave out the parts of the conversation that would refute your theory.

Again, I didn’t leave out anything to refute my theory. My only “theory” was that O’Reilly said something stupid that he shouldn’t have. If anything, the fact that he corrected himself supports that theory.

I used to watch O’Reilly on a fairly regular basis. I stopped watching when I decided that he does more harm than good for the causes I believe in. I am a pretty conservative guy, and Bill and I probably agree on a lot of things, but his main goal seems to be to argue, and I fail to see how coming across as a jackhole does anything to win friends or influence people.

“I am not saying you shouldn’t say ‘Happy Holidays’ or ‘Happy Chanukah’ or ‘Kwanza.’ You see that is the biggest misnomer in the world. All I object to is…(inaudible as his guest was speaking over him).�

“You are distorting what I said, as well as all these other pinheads in the press, and I want to make it very clear to you and everybody else out there. My objection is to ordering people not to say Merry Christmas. That’s it. ‘Happy Holidays’ all day long. ‘Kwanza’ all day long, and ‘Happy Chanukah’ as well.�

When he said that “Happy Holidays� is offensive to Christians in the transcript that you quoted above, he was in the middle of what appears to be a heated discussion and he apparently misspoke. This kind of thing happens all the time in talk radio and television and real life when people are arguing. They get caught in a trap and words don’t come out the way they were meant to.

How do I know that he misspoke in the transcript that you quoted? Well, I read the next two sentences that you left out. I also continued to read the transcript which made it clear that he does not think that Christians are offended by the use of the other slogans, only denying employees the right to say “Merry Christmas.�

Here is the rest of the exchange that you left out:

O’REILLY (emphatically): Yes it does! Absolutely does. Ummm - and I know that for a fact. But the smart way to do it is (gestures with hands as if posting signs) “Merry Christmas,” “Happy Chanukkah,” “Seasons Greetings,” Happy Kwanza.”

NULMAN: It’s a long list.

O’REILLY: It’s OK. Ya’ got a big store!

NULMAN: Um-hum.

O’REILLY: Ya’ got a big store.

NULMaN: Right.

O’REILLY: You can put the little banners all over the place.

NULMAN: Uh-huh.

O’REILLY: But to tell your employees don’t say “Merry Christmas” is, you know - I just think you are alienating far more people by that …

NULMAN: Um.

O’REILLY: … than you would be by saying “Merry Christmas” and all of the other slogans.

NULMAN: Well, I think that, statistically speaking, we’d be hard-pressed to find that Christians are offended by gestures on the part of employees that say “Happy holidays to you.” [indecipherable]

O’REILLY (overtalks): Alright. We’re gonna do a poll question and I’m gonna signal to my guys …

I understand that you may not agree with Mr. O’Reilly, but he deserves to be treated fairly and not have his words taken out of context (as you have done) and misconstrued to make it seem like his position is idiotic. I agree with you that anyone who says “’Happy Holidays’ is offensive� and doesn’t correct himself is an idiot. But don’t call someone a moron who mumbles something in an argument, then immediately clarifies his position.

It seems to me like you are getting your information about Bill O’Reilly from smear websites that hate Fox News. (The site where the transcript was obtained has a slogan across the top of the page that reads: We watch Fox, so you don’t have to.) That hardly sounds impartial.

I am not telling you that you should watch the Factor if you don’t want to, but don’t attack Bill O’Reilly based upon the claims of haters. It makes you seem less intelligent when you don’t have all the information about his position, but make definitive statements. And it makes you seem less trustworthy when you conveniently leave out the parts of the conversation that would refute your theory.

You are the moron. Obviously you do not watch The Factor and you are taking these transcripts from Hate Fox News/Hate O’Reilly websites.

You mention that the transcript above is not taken out of context, technically that appears to be true, but if you watch the show you will see that Mr. O’Reilly has no problem with the use of the phrases “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings.” His problem is with is companies and organizations that refuse to recognize or mention the name of the Federal Holiday that is celebrated by a very large majority of the population, for fear that mention of the word “Christmas” might offend a very small portion of the 15% who don’t celebrate the holiday.

His real problem is with companies or organizations like WalMart, last year, who forbade their associates from mentioning the word “Christmas” to customers that came through the register. That is at least borderline, a free speech issue.

The transcript listed above does make it appear, when read by it self, that Mr. O’Reilly is offended by the non-Christmas oriented greetings, but I know from watching other segments that he is not. He does, however, think it is ridiculous that firms leave out the name of the major holiday celebrated this time of year.

Finally, even a careful reading of the transcript above does not lead the reader to think that Mr. O’Reilly is offended by “Happy Holidays” and “Seasons Greetings,” but, if anything, offended by the refusal to recognize the name of the Christmas holiday.