Apparently this really happened overnight — someone torched the tree at America’s most destructive propaganda outlet:
#BREAKING: The Fox News Christmas Tree is on fire in NYC pic.twitter.com/xfWdFgdQIS
— Leonardo Puglisi (@Leo_Puglisi6) December 8, 2021
I’ll make none of the obvious remarks as I don’t want to end up on the sedition network’s “smirking liberal reactions” roundup segment.
Open thread.
JPL
It’s a holiday miracle.
Cephalus Max
I’m enjoying the hell out of the post title.
debbie
Self-immolation from spite and malevolence?
SiubhanDuinne
I hope it wasn’t arson, and if it was, I hope nobody on our team was responsible. Even though it’s Fox’s tree, it’s still a dangerous blaze.
Nina
Personally my prime suspect is fire code violations and cheap substandard wiring, because Fox believes in Freedumb!
Geminid
Where there’s woke, there’s fire.
OzarkHillbilly
We’ll fill in for you, Betty, mind you it won’t be with your unique style.
Ryan
Fucking shame.
MikefromArlington
We won that battle guys. Now to focus on the greater war!
matt the somewhat reasonable
Fox News should be more careful with their toys.
NotMax
It was bound to happen: muffling the hos.
;)
debbie
My nomination for more appropriate holiday decorating:
Betty Cracker
It was arson, according to a local NBC affiliate:
lowtechcyclist
The network that regards the killer of two innocent people as a hero really can’t complain too much about someone killing a frickin’ tree.
If it should turn out that this was a deliberate act, that is, rather than a problem with the wiring.
Elizabelle
How festive.
NotMax
When does Tucky C. begin calling for a crackdown on Firefox?
//
Elizabelle
NY Post: “The holiday display was set ablaze shortly after midnight and the flames quickly spread up the tree in Fox Square outside the 6th Avenue building that houses Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.”
Tree decorated with red, white and blue ornaments, and obnoxious signage around proclaiming an “All American Christmas.”
Shall we tell them?
marklar
Liar Liar, trees on fire.
ThresherK
Fox News has earned every iota of their crap reputation.
Is it irresponsible to speculate that this is a false flag operation?
No, it is irresponsible not to.
debbie
Bet those decorations weren’t made in America.
Betty Cracker
@marklar: That would have been a better title!
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: I know. I love it.
raven
Our neighbors had a house fire Sunday morning. They are both writers and lost most of their work and archives. Everyone is safe but they have a long way to go to recover.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
rikyrah
@raven:
????
rikyrah
@marklar:
Ah .. good one
debbie
@raven:
Glad they’re okay, but what a loss for them!
The Thin Black Duke
Let’s start a GoFundMe for the arsonist.
sab
My mother died in 2012. One of our biggest fights in the last few years was whether or not to continue to use her mother’s Christmas lights on the tree. Those things had to date back to the 1940s.
matt the somewhat reasonable
@sab: I replaced the vintage knob and tube wiring in my old house a few years back. Made it a little easier to sleep at night.
Ken
@sab: Christmas isn’t really Christmas without the smell of hot asbestos.
raven
@rikyrah: This is Dr McKnight and
Dr Mark.
Betty Cracker
@sab: Wow, amazing that the 1940s lights still worked, but I guess that’s because I’m used to cheap, mass-produced crap that breaks every three years.
My husband’s grandfather owned a dive bar in Buffalo, New York in the 1940s-50s, and we have a lighted sign that once adorned the street window. The cord looks sketchy, but it still works. We only use it when someone is present to make sure it doesn’t catch on fire!
p.a.
Maybe the tree did it when it found out it was Fox’s.
Chris
Maybe God was pissed off enough at having fascists claim him for their own that he set their celebration of his big day on fire as a “I don’t want anything to do with you people” sign. Same way he burned the swastika off of that box holding the Ark of the Covenant.
(Given the nature of Christmas and Yuletide, “God” in this case may mean Jesus or Odin).
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: A buddy of mine gave us a 1940/50s desktop fan as a housewarming gift. A real finger eater, it moves air like nobody’s business. We still use it.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Original wiring?
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Yep. Nothing wrong with it, so if it ain’t broke, I’m not fixing it.
Van Buren
Mrs. Van Buren, in a rare moment of insanity, bought a tree skirt impregnated with glitter. The dogs decided it made a nice blanket. My house has been glitter bombed, and the pups look fabulous!
Betty
@raven: That’s just devastating. What a loss.
brendancalling
Pffffft. “False flag!” That tree is clearly a crisis actor-tree. Check out any of the footage of California or Oregon wildfires. That tree is in every. single. one.
And if it wasn’t a crisis actor-tree, it might still be alive if it complied.
/Fox
John S.
@OzarkHillbilly:
My grandfather owned a thriving Admiral appliance repair shop in NYC back in the day. I’m not even sure a business like that can exist now.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@raven: OMG.
I hope they were using a cloud backup.
raven
@John S.: I had a stackable washer/dryer that had mechanical controls and I was able to fix it three times. The digital. . .fuggettabouit.
raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Nope, lots and lots of paper. She showed me the pictures of her space this morning and almost everything is gone. Did you know them in
Iowa City? OOoops, you were in Ames.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@marklar: @Van Buren: You both made me laugh out loud. Great way to start the day.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@raven: I didn’t know many people in Iowa City because I worked in Ames, but once again, OMG
I think I’ve said before that I was at the University of Michigan when the old wooden shed that housed the economics dept burned down. Those faculty lost everything from teaching notes to books to their current project. This was pre-computers too.
scav
Someone was upset there weren’t enough guns and requests for ammo in the display?
OzarkHillbilly
@John S.: @raven:
We’ve got a really good appliance repairman, been using him ever since we moved out here. Fixed both our washer and dryer several times.
When the microwave went on the fritz? He just shook his head and told me to replace it. Which sucked because it was a built-in and I had to rework the trim all around it.
bbleh
Fox”s tree was WEAK. This wouldn’t have happened to a STRONG tree!
raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: When I worked for the “System” here in Georgia we had a case at a small school where their course management system and the tape backup failed right at the end of the term. We took a team of about 30 people down there and spent two weeks helping faculty rebuild their courses. Some had everything backed up and some had nothing.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie:
Most likely.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for reminding me, mine need a bulb! In renovation news, the painters should be done today and then the floors. They put in the granite countertop yesterday so it’s really shaping up.
JMG
In the basement I still have Christmas lights handed down to me by my father. I don’t dare use them inside or out because they get hot enough for baking. I also inherited lead-based tinsel, which Dad would lovingly remove from the tree each January and pack away, strand by deadly strand.
Butch
For what it’s worth, from an ABC New York affiliate:
Heavy flames then spread to smaller decorated trees in the display. A 49-year-old man spotted by building security climbing the tree was quickly taken into custody.
The suspect is identified as 49-year-old Craig Tamanaha, who is homeless, with a last known address in Brooklyn. He is charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, arson, criminal nuisance, endangering others, criminal trespass, criminal tampering and disorderly conduct.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
If Christmas hadn’t overrun Thanksgiving in a sneak attack and threatened Halloween, there wouldn’t have been any need for a counterattack.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Pics or it ain’t happening!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@raven: I’m resaving stuff to dropbox right now.
mrmoshpotato
@lowtechcyclist:
Oh? You just watch the shitstains whine all the way to Christmas.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker:
I guess that means it was some white male right-wing conservative, right?
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: I got tired of having to replace strings of lights every year, so about 10 or so years ago I splurged on two strings that cost $5 but had a money-back guarantee that they would last at least five years. I’m still using them, and they still work great! Plus, I took all the bulbs out of the bad strings and used them as replacement bulbs, so I haven’t bought any replacement bulbs until this year, when they finally ran out.
mrmoshpotato
@Van Buren: LMAO!
prostratedragon
@raven: Condolences to your neighbors, and hope they can figure out a way to recover eventually.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I thought of that first, having arrived there some time later, but while many members of the department were still there — and still somewhat traumatized when anything near the subject came up. Invariably thankful that no one was injured or killed. I think also of Ralph Ellison, who lost most of his work in a fire.
germy
They’re trying to nip VP Harris in the bud:
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Here’s a few.
One issue we’re having, they did foam insulation on the walls and floors and some leaked onto the exterior. I guess if they had cleaned it with acetone at the time but they didn’t. We don’t have any of the original paint so we’re worried we are going to have to paint the entire exterior.
dmsilev
Silly liberal, you’re supposed to hug the tree, not torch it.
Chief Oshkosh
@Betty Cracker:
Ah, but WHERE was it removed from? Maybe it’s all a big misunderstanding, a mistake made by a Trump follower who was trying to follow his leader’s advice on using rectal lighting to kill Covid and, well, there was sure as shit a lot of lights on that tree…
artem1s
Hans Gruber is ALIVE!
waysel
@raven: You’re aware of the computer color matching some paint stores have available nowadays? Sherwin Williams has done it quite well for me.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Looking good.
Ooopps. That sucks. Any way you could get creative with it?
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: We’ve got an ancient Vornadofan stand model that weighs at least 40 pounds and has absolutely zero safety features, but damn, that thing could probably keep a hurricane at bay with the sheer force of its mighty wind!
prostratedragon
Whether we please, or don’t please:
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Metal blades rule!
stacib
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: This is laugh out loud funny. Thanks!
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: Yep! So dangerous though! I’m glad it’s on a high stand where children and dogs can’t get at it. And it’s so damn heavy they can’t turn it over either.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, I keep our oldie on top of a book shelf where I am the only one who can reach it. Grand babies, doncha know.
Elizabelle
WRT Fox News: I think we should call it Phony News. Not Fake News. They’ve appropriated that insult.
Phony sums up a staff of highly paid vaccinated personalities lying to their viewers during a deadly pandemic.
Thought about that since burned tree is in front of “News Corporation” HQ.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Chris: Goddess, Yule is Freja’s day. Thus the hams.
Smart people don’t accept meat from Odin.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: My grandparents had two of those in their living room. One was in front of the TV. My parents had one, too. They could put out some air!
Honus
@germy: as someone pointed out on another thread, every one of those guns in Massie’s Xmas card tweet cost more than the Le Creuset Harris bought.
raven
@waysel: I am, in no way, involved with paint and color issues. None.
WaterGirl
@raven: That makes you a very smart man!
Jeffery
It was a setup by FOX. They probably paid the guy to do it. Now they can cry christian persecution.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
Is it possible the tree somehow got an idea of where it was, and the fire was suicide?
Betty Cracker
@Honus: That’s an excellent point.
Squid696
It was self-defense.
MattF
I went to a flea market years ago and saw a ‘40s dollhouse that had been ‘electrified.’ Just astonishing, what was considered acceptable electrical wiring for a child’s toy, back in those days.
QuiltingFool
Rattlemullet
May be they will replace it with an aluminum festivus pole. More fitting to those at fox air their grievances on a daily basis.
Mike in NC
Proof that there really is a God?
ETtheLibrarian
As my friend said, she thought they were more into burning crosses……
Jess
Yo Fox–All Trees Matter!
Chris Johnson
@WaterGirl: It could very easily be some MAGA dude who thinks Fox is liberal now. Those are the ones groomed for terror acts, and they’re real mad at ‘RINOs’.
lowtechcyclist
Well, about time they were persecuted by Christians!
lowtechcyclist
@MattF:
I have a feeling my mid-1960s chemistry set wouldn’t pass muster nowadays either…
Ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
Neither would any of the inventory of mine or of the high school chemistry class I took about then. Looking back, I’m amazed that they could sell that stuff. But then I remember that we used white lead and oil as a tapping fluid – that’s making threads in holes, white lead was banned from sale, it’s only slightly toxic, lead poisoning currently killing somewhere around 550,000 people in the world every year, even as it’s use has been cut dramatically 50 yrs ago in the US.
sab
@MattF: My mother had an electrified dollshouse. When I got it as a child they had removed the plug, but it still had little ceiling lights
ETA My grandmother had a little propane stove/ oven that they occassionally had to rush into the backyard in case it was about to blow up.
Suzanne
@Honus:
I’ve run into this mindset before. So many gun owners see their arsenals as necessities and not luxuries. I remember a former friend complaining about how she never had money to travel or buy new clothes, and I suggested that she sell some of the firepower she owns (or just stop buying more), and you would have thought I suggested chopping off an arm.
lurkypants
@Nina: possibly there was a fire hazard/bad wiring. I recognize those nutcracker/soldiers from when I worked at Rock Center 20 years ago (I was two doors down, in the building that put giant ornaments in the fountain out front, kitty-corner from Radio City). And who knows how old they were then?