NBC's Dateline: "Nutty War on Christmas" Arguments Were A "Giant, Laughable Lie"

As reported on tonight's O'Reilly Factor (January 10, 2006), Sunday's episode of NBC's Dateline (January 8, 2006) declared that recent attacks on the traditional meaning of Christmas were a "giant, laughable lie."

A segment on blogs narrated by Josh Mankiewicz also aired a snippet from Bill O'Reilly's recent appearance on Letterman's Late Show. Which snippet? The part where Letterman told Bill, "I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap." Real balanced, eh?

From the Dateline segment, as shown on the Factor tonight (available at foxnews.com) (emphasis mine):

MANKIEWICZ (voiceover): "That nutty war on Christmas thing got plenty of traction on the blogs before it ever hit your TV set. Now a lot of bloggers say it's finally been put to bed."

LETTERMAN (snipped from O'Reilly's guest spot): "I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap." (audience laughter)

MANKIEWICZ: "But here's what I want to know. Why did it fall to David Letterman to make clear what a giant, laughable lie that all was. (J.M. in his office, to camera) And here's my take on that. There's more than one religion in this country, and most of us understand that. And those talking heads so obsessed with that war on Christmas? What they're really obsessed with is finding ways to attract more attention for themselves. Nothing wrong with that. Just don't take it too seriously.

Hmmm ... Wouldn't Josh fit in the "talking head" category? Doesn't Josh care about ratings ("ways to attract more attention")?

It seems Mankiewicz was hoping to get the last word in on the "war on Christmas" issue. Sorry about that, Josh.