THE 2005 "WAG THE DOG" AWARD GOES TO: FOX'S WAR ON CHRISTMAS!
In the spirit of Hollywood, which has an award ceremony for almost every possible facet of the industry - and week of the year - the Bystander is introducing the annual "Wag the Dog" award for the story that best demonstrates how the media really can invent any world it likes.

In nothing more than a shameful, and blatant, promotional exercise for one of its own, Fox News ran the "War On Christmas" following the publication of a book of the same title by - yes, you've guessed it; Fox's John Gibson. In his book, Gibson argues that the secular left, along with Uncle Tom Cobbley and Satan himself, are targeting Christmas' christian origins and forcing people to eschew such salutations as "Merry Christmas" in favor of "Happy Holidays." Aided by spin-meister Bill O'Reilly (fair and balanced as ever), Gibson's thesis has been pushed on the American public as nothing short of the opening act for the Second Coming.

It takes very little effort for anyone with a brain to say "Merry Christmas" to someone and discover that they don't suddenly scream out that they are offended or pull out an AK-47 and shout "die, atheist scum!" In fact, apart from the folks at Fox, who clearly have bees in their Christmas bonnets, nobody really seems to have any problems whatsoever with tossing out a "Merry Christmas" - and that includes atheists.

Of course, the religious right hopped onto the Fox bandwagon, whining about how Christians are "under siege" or "oppressed" or even "persecuted," when this is patently not the case. When you have a President in power who actually says that teaching "Intelligent Design" in science classes is simply "presenting both sides of the argument," it's obvious that the amount of power that the Christian majority has simply is not diminished in any real way.

So, for creating a veritable media hurricane in a miniscule secular teacup, the 2005 "Wag the Dog" award is hereby presented to Fox News.

Congratulations!