CNN promoted a new children’s book on Sunday that portrays Santa Claus as a gay man, calling the controversial book a “fresh, new twist” on Santa’s story.
CNN’s “New Day” gave the book, “Santa’s Husband,” a four-minute segment on national television which featured a chyron that stated, “Children’s Holiday Book Explores Race, Homosexuality.”
Co-anchor Christi Paul and co-host Victor Blackwell introduced the book’s author, Daniel Kibblesmith, and illustrator Ashley Quach, who said that the book was inspired by “the annual tradition we have in this country of pretending that there’s a giant war on Christmas, and that traditional Christmas is under attack.”
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Later in the segment, Blackwell brought up criticism the book has received, including from the gay community, and asked Kibblesmith if he was using his book to promote a political agenda.
Kibblesmith responded:
Well, I think that’s a legitimate criticism. I mean, I’m literally on the news anchor scene now, but, you know, that’s just the world that we come from. I’m a political satire writer. So when, you know, I have the opportunity to write a book, these are the things that I care about and that I’m interested in. My only real response to that, I think, is that we’re trying to put a net positive into the world and contribute to a vacuum of representation. But these are obviously our views — they’re not everybody’s views, and we’re just flattered that the response has been so overwhelmingly positive so far.