On 5 November 2015, TDAlliance.com, an offshoot of the satirical Facebook group Fox News The FB Page, published an article reporting that the Obama administration was preventing families from sending Christmas cards to U.S. military members serving overseas because the holiday "offends Muslims":
Obama's military command will prevent delivery of Christmas cards being sent from families to their servicemen loved ones overseas spokesmen for The Pentagon said today.
The White House claims that traditional Christmas greetings wish will upset Muslims in host countries and will have to convicted and returned to the sender. Per executive order, all overseas military mail will be monitored for references to Christmas, Jesus Christ, or pork products which are known to offend Muslims.
An Army Veteran who reached out to Fox News said Pentagon leadership is "hypersensitive to anyone who says they feel like their rights are being violated." "It's extremely frustrating," the soldier said. "The U.S. Military is living in fear of radical Muslims."
Neither "Fox News The Facebook Page" nor the web site TDAlliance.com has any affiliation with the Fox News cable channel. While neither site carries a disclaimer identifying them as a fake news site, both have a record of publishing false rumors, such as a story about Michelle Obama's portrait being placed on the $10 bill and an article about the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan being renamed the USS Obama.
The above-referenced article is simply a piece of fiction, but many readers were still fooled into believing that the Obama administration had actually banned the sending of Christmas cards to military bases. This isn't the case: families can still send mail directly to their loved ones serving in the military, and while the "Holiday Mail for Heroes" program isn't as robust as it once was, Americans can still send holiday cards to U.S. military personnel through various Red Cross chapters.