NPR’s Totenberg Laments ‘Christmas’ Comment

NPR’s Totenberg Laments ‘Christmas’ Comment

NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg took political correctness to new heights when she actually apologized on-air for using the word “Christmas.”

During an appearance on the Dec. 19 edition of the TV news show “Inside Washington,” Totenberg said: “We just passed this huge tax cut in part because business said, you know, we have to plan, we have to know what kind of tax cuts we have. Well, these agencies, including the Defense Department, don’t know how much money they’ve got and for what. And I was at — forgive the expression — a Christmas party at the Department of Justice and people actually were really worried about this.”

The Mediaite website observed: “Maybe in the wake of Juan Williams’ firing, [do] NPR employees, just to be safe, apologize for anything in advance?”

NPR fired Williams after he made what was viewed as a politically incorrect statement about Muslims, saying he gets “nervous” when he sees people in “Muslim garb” on an airplane.

The NewsBusters website observed that Totenberg was “seemingly embarrassed to invoke any religious terminology for Christmas. She didn’t say what she’d prefer parties this time of year to be named. Winter solstice party?”

Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly has been an outspoken opponent of what he calls the “war” on Christmas, saying in 2005 that “it’s all part of the secular progressive agenda . . . to get Christianity and spirituality and Judaism out of the public square.”

He also said: “I don’t believe most people who aren’t Christian are offended by the words ‘Merry Christmas.’ I think those people are nuts.”