As American Christians begin making their annual decision about whether to go with a real Christmas tree (love the pine aroma!) or an artificial one (love the easy clean-up!), there is another real vs. artificial question hanging.
That’s about a story on the Drudge Report claiming the Obama administration is taxing sales of real Christmas trees. The answer is: FAKE.
Ads for fake trees are run by big box retailers like Walmart and Target, leaving Christmas tree farmers outgunned
In the Drudge Report’s world of sensationalist all-caps headlines, it doesn’t get much better than “OBAMA’S NEW ‘CHRISTMAS TREE TAX.'” In five sparse words, the headline captured pretty much everything Drudge and its readers believe about the current administration, in which big-government liberals would figure out a way to tax Christmas during hard economic times.
The only problem? It wasn’t true. The 15-cents-a-tree charge that caused so much commotion earlier in the week was not a tax, and it has little to do with the Obama administration.
But sad experience has taught that things don’t have to be true to be repeated in the rightwing echo chamber and instituted as memes on FOX News, and next thing you know, outraged seniors (who make up the majority of FOX’s viewers) and other low information voters (who make up the rest) are calling their elected representatives demanding change. Which, in this case, is a dumb idea. Read on to find out why.
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