Topic: CNSNews.com
Being editor-in-chief of CNSNews.com must be a really easy job -- at least, that's how Terry Jeffrey appears to be portraying. Not only does he have ample time to devise ways to mislead his readers about President Obama and root through Gallup polls for statistics to cherry-pick, he can spend spend company time taking in the holiday sights of Washington D.C.
Jeffrey apparently spent hours wandering around the Christmas tree at the Capitol snapping pictures of ornaments, eventually resulting in this story:
The 63-foot Sierra White Fir lighted at the U.S. Capitol Grounds on Dec. 6 as the official 2011 Capitol Christmas Tree includes a prominently displayed ornament paying homage to President Barack Obama, but includes no ornament readily visible to a person standing near the tree's base that uses the word “Christmas,” or includes an image of the Nativity, or bears the name or image of Jesus Christ.
On the north side of the tree--at a height of about 4 feet and easily visible to people standing near it---there is an ornament that says: “I ♥ President Obama.”
When asked whether the tree included any ornaments that mention or depict Christmas or the birth of Jesus, the office of the Architect of the Capitol, which is responsible for the tree, told CNSNews.com that it “does not have a policy nor any restrictions concerning the themes for the ornaments” that go on the tree. The office could not say, however, whether or not this year’s Christmas tree does in fact include even a single ornament that directly references or depicts Christmas or Christ.
Of course, the White House has no control whatsoever over the Capitol's Christmas tree, making Jeffrey's putative attack on the Obama administration even more specious. It did, however, make for good link bait, and the Drudge Report complied.
Maybe the Drudge traffic was worth Jeffrey spending hours wandering around a Christmas tree taking pictures of ornaments. But that only highlights the fact that Jeffrey is a political partisan out for a hit job and link bait, not a journalist trying to report relevant facts.
