John Stossel, who recently moved from ABC to Fox Business, posted an entry on his blog, mentioning Bill O’Reilly’s effort to draft him as a soldier in his irrational “war on Christmas.” He makes an interesting point:
Tonight O’Reilly wants me to talk about a website that lets users rate retail stores on how “Christmas-friendly” they are. …
Bill wonders whether companies would make more money by saying “merry Christmas” more. I have no clue. I assume the owners of these companies know how to run them better than I do. Their money is on the line. If Merry Christmas attracts customers, they’ll make sure their employees say it.
We ran some numbers: the website’s 5 most Christmas-y companies increased profits one percentage point over the last year. The lowest 5? They also increased profits by one percentage point.
Stossel gets it: The coercive “say ‘Merry Christmas’ or else” boycott campaigns are ineffective and useless … and moreover, O’Reilly’s assumption that saying “Merry Christmas” boosts sales figures, is unfounded.
It’s about time a reasonable voice was heard on this subject, from deep within the command bunkers of the Fox media empire.
Tags: bill o'reilly, christmas, john stossel, merry christmas, war on christmas, war on christmas 2009
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