When I wrote about the myth of the War on Christmas for Salon a few weeks ago, I noted that the narrative has its roots in Henry Ford's venomous tract "The International Jew," later resurfacing in John Birch Society propaganda. I wrote, "To compare today's 'war on Christmas' demagogues to Henry Ford is not to call them anti-Semites. Rather, they are purveyors of a conspiracy theory that repeatedly crops up in America. The malefactors change -- Jews, the U.N., the ACLU -- but the outlines stay the same. The scheme is always massive, reaching up to the highest levels of power." But in the last two weeks, I've started to think that I may have been giving the gang at Fox News too much credit, because every day they're sounding more and more like Father Coughlin, the fascist radio priest of the 1930s. <