Fox News lights new Christmas Tree outside headquarters following fire

Fox News has erected and lit a new Christmas tree outside the company’s world headquarters in Manhattan following a fire less than 48 hours earlier that torched the one that previously stood in its place. 

The fire, which was set during an alleged arson early on Wednesday morning, burned the previous 50-foot “All-American” tree, an incident that was widely recorded, reported on social media and broadcast live on Fox’s air. 

Police arrested a suspect, 49-year-old Craig Tamanaha, at the scene, and have charged him with with arson, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and criminal trespass after he allegedly climbed the tree and set it on fire. 

“We’re not going to let one guy with a lighter ruin Christmas,” Steve Doocy, a host of “Fox & Friends,” said before the lighting ceremony on Thursday. 

“Even though the arsonist is already out on the streets, probably working at CNN, we want the bad guys to know that you can keep burning down our trees because we’re gonna keep putting up another one,” quipped Greg Gutfeld, a host of “The Five.” 

In a memo to staff on Wednesday morning, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott called the incident “malicious” and thanked the New York City fire and police departments for quickly responding to the blaze. 

Later on Wednesday, Scott told staff in a separate memo that as “as a silver lining and an act of kindness during the holiday season,” Fox News Media and Fox News Corporation would make a $100,000 donation to “Answer The Call,” a charity benefiting police, fire and first responders killed in the line of duty.  

Throughout the day on Wednesday, a number of hosts, pundits and guests on Fox spoke at length about the tree fire, comparing it to other instances of vandalism in the country and tying it to rising crime rates over the last year. 

“The judge could have found a way to keep him locked up if he felt he was a threat to society,” Brian Kilmeade, a host of “Fox & Friends,” said on Thursday morning of Tamanaha, who has been released on bail. “Who says it’s not a hate crime against us, against Fox News?”