Debbie Schlussel: SCHLUSSEL EXCLUSIVE: Target Forbids "Merry Christmas" (& Why You Can't Always Believe Snopes)
Last year, it was Macy's. This year, it's apparently Target.
This weekend, several Target employees at Detroit area Targets told me that they have been told they are forbidden from saying "Merry Christmas" to customers. Doing so could result in firing, they told me, and are restricted to the now-conventional, bland "Happy Holidays."
We were unable to contact Target PR people over the weekend, but judging from our past experiences with them, we will probably not get a response.
In the past, we've contacted Target to ask why the store sells clothing made in terrorism sponsor Syria and the United Arab Emirates (whose government funded a think tank that claims Americans and Jews were behind 9/11 and features Holocaust deniers), both of which are reason enough to limit your shoppping trips, there. Target's media "relations" people repeatedly refused to return phone calls (Wal-Mart and K-Mart did, in fact, respond to similar, related questions).
Given what we've been reporting, keep these items in mind when you are doing your Christmas (or Chanukkah)and everyday shopping:
* Wal-Mart: Twice raided for knowingly employing illegal aliens (through contractors)
* Target: No "Merry Christmas"
This is yet another vivid illustration of why you CANNOT rely on self-anointed Internet "myth debunker" sites, like Snopes--which claims this isn't true that this is Target policy. WHEN IT IS (according to several Target employees who contacted me and those I talked to at various Target stores, this weekend). (Snopes also got the story about Caribou Coffee's terrorist ties WRONG from the beginning and CONTINUES to get it wrong.) Not sure who died and made Snopes king of the truth, but the site isn't reliable.
Posted by Debbie on December 5, 2005 09:15 AM to Debbie Schlussel