Baby Jesus Was Secular? Who Knew?

It is not a sign of professional journalism when you let your hatred of a person or institution blind you to the facts. It's also not advisable to rant about something without reading it.

If you don't know what I am referring to, McBride does a gratuitous slam on one of her favorite targets, Laurel Walker:

The Journal Sentinel's lefty Waukesha columnist Laurel Walker adorns her "Christmas" tree with "secular baubles." Why am I not surprised?

What Walker really wrote was:

My tree (once it's up and decorated) is a Christmas tree, decorated with mostly secular baubles, souvenirs, a lot of "Sesame Street" characters (dating to the boys' childhoods), a handful of angels and a tiny hanging crèche - maybe even two. (emphasis mine)

If you think McBride is way off-base on this one, you're not alone. Tim Rock opines:

It's a pathetic game of gotcha by McBride. Some might even say she was being disingenuous (you know, lying). In any case, it was incredibly petty and beneath a "professional journalist.

"Why is she teaching at my alma mater anyway?

And from Whallah!'s mailbox:

Why take after someone's religious practices (also falsely calling Laurel Walker a "lefty," when she's pretty apolitical and writes a light column) - - but then when you read Walker's column, you read that she indeed has religious items on her tree. Such as a creche.So McBride is either deliberately dishonest, sloppy or didn't read the whole thing. Or doesn't know what a creche is.