Why is the greatest celebration in the world never news? Why, this event manages to do something that no other celebration does. It transcends race, transcends socio-economic status, transcends language, cultural, and even national boundaries. It is the single most celebrated event all over the planet. Yet its real story rarely gets highlighted by the media in our highly secular age.
        In short, why is the real meaning of Christmas always suppressed?
         All over the world, in a variety of settings, the birth of Jesus is celebrated by people from every nation, every tongue, every tribe. It is celebrated with what is, in my opinion, some of the greatest ever composed, including Handel’s Messiah.
         But is the story of his birth the greatest story never told? Years ago, Barbara Reynolds wrote an editorial for USA Today, entitled "The Greatest Story Ever Missed."
         That was about fifteen years ago. The three networks have outdone themselves in this category recently. The Culture and Media Institute of the Media Research Center released a report the other week entitled "Christmas without Christ." They document in that report that between October 1, 2008 and September 30, 2010, the evening news broadcasts of the three networks ran 527 stories that mentioned Christmas or that focused on Christmas. But of all those stories, only a handful mentioned God or Jesus Christ, whose birth is the focal point of Christmas. Seven stories of the 527 only. That’s 1.3% of the stories. The other 98.7% mention the weather, the underwear bomber, the economy, the president, the movies, whatever.
         Conservatives are often accused of censorship, which is an absurd accusation. By definition, censorship means prior restraint by the government. But who are the real censors (using the term in the broader sense)?
         If someone were to use the American media as the means by which they would learn about our culture (all of it---good and bad), they would get such a skewed version, if all they ever watched were the networks. That’s especially true when it comes to anything Christian.
         I think this is part of the reason Fox News is killing the competition. They really do have a more fair and balanced presentation. If they mention Christmas, there is a greater than 1.3% chance that they’ll mention it has something to do with religion…as in the Christian religion.
         If you watch Fox News, you’re likely to sometimes see Bernard Goldberg, 28-year veteran of CBS news. He has always been a fair-minded reporter. When he wrote a guest op-ed on the media’s bias in 1996, it began a chain of events which ultimately led to his mutual parting of the ways from CBS. Today, Goldberg often comments on events and media bias on The O’Reilly Factor. Bill O’Reilly does better than his competition because he acknowledges that there’s another side.
        A few years ago, for a religious television program, I interviewed Bernie Goldberg about media bias, and he made a fascinating comment about the loss of viewership of the mainstream media, precisely because of their leftward bias. Bernie said this: "In 1980/1981, that’s when the last year of [Walter] Cronkite and the first year of Dan Rather—just to use that as a benchmark—of all the people in America with TV sets on, during the dinner hour, 75%—three our of every four Americans—were watching one of the network newscasts, either on ABC, NBC, or CBS News—75%....And now, in early 2004, the number is down to about 40%.  If they were selling shoes, instead of news, they’d be out of business by now."
         Since that interview, virtually all the major players have been replaced. The anchors, the news executives, some of the reporters. Yet the secular bias continues and likely will continue until they discover too late that the American people are more religious than is understood by the mainstream media.
         I remember when Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times admitted famously a few years ago he didn’t know of a single evangelical anywhere in any mainstream news outfit. No, not one. At least he was honest.
         Religion (and specifically Christianity) is the least understood story by so many people in the newsroom. Yet it is the key motivation to the soup kitchens, the crisis pregnancy centers, the feeding ministries, generous tips, the musical celebrations and presentations this time of year.
         So let me say---unless this column gets censored---"Merry Christmas" or, in other words, "Happy Birthday, Jesus!"