Jewish family 'fled' home when blamed for school canceling 'A Christmas Carol'? More fake news.

Since news hit this week that a Pennsylvania elementary school canceled its long-standing student production of "A Christmas Carol" — reportedly first prompted by parental complaints about the fifth-grade play — the issue has boiled over into a giant mess.

A number of news outlets ran with stories saying a Jewish family "fled" Lancaster County over fears they might be targeted as responsible for the play's cancellation — but that turned out to be false.

What's more, some of those outlets blamed conservative news sites for escalating the situation — and a local TV news station reported that the school district changed its original story about the controversy.

Let's break it all down.

Local TV news station WHTM-TV said it asked a Hempfield School District spokeswoman if parental complaints about the play's iconic line, “God bless us, everyone," were behind the decision to dump "A Christmas Carol."

Shannon Zimmerman replied that such complaints got discussions going, but the ultimate reason the play was canceled at Centerville Elementary School is because it cut into classroom time, WHTM said.

And when the story hit the national stage, people began reacting — many not too happily.

Lancaster Online reported that parents of a Jewish student at the school — who spoke to the outlet on the condition of anonymity — said they removed their child from class over harassment and blame for the cancellation of "A Christmas Carol."

The parents, however, told the outlet they didn’t complain about the play or demand its cancellation — just that they requested their child be excused from participation. The school said yes. But after the play was dropped in November, the parents told Lancaster Online their child started getting harassed.

They finally pulled their child from school after news stories hit, the outlet said, specifically noting pieces by Fox News and Breitbart — along with reader comments that scared them. One Breitbart story comment read, "It would be nice if we had the addresses of those concerned citizens and, I bet, this info is known to people living in the area.”

But Lancaster Online in its original report also said the family fled the county due to similar fears — which turned out to be false.

“News reports alleging that a Jewish family has ‘fled’ Lancaster County are untrue and damaging,” Nancy Baron-Baer, an Anti-Defamation League regional director, said in a statement Thursday. “We spoke with the family, who explained that they went on a previously-planned vacation for the holidays. Stories like this can sow fear in the Jewish community and beyond, and it is important to stop the spread of misinformation."

Lancaster Online's updated story indicates that it stands behind its original reporting and that no further comment was available from the family Thursday or Friday.

Still, once word got around that the Jewish family had fled, a number of outlets ran with that angle — and some maintained that the Fox News and Breitbart pieces were to blame for the family's reported plight.

"As of this writing, the claim has been amplified as an established fact by PennLive, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Mediaite, Slate, Crooks and Liars, Raw Story, Media Matters, TalkingPointsMemo, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and the Forward," Breitbart wrote in a follow-up piece. As of 2:30 p.m. ET Friday, all the aforementioned outlets except the Forward have updated their articles with the ADL's statement.

Even so, the thrusts of some of the stories still lay blame at the feet of Fox News and Breitbart.

Slate's headine as of Friday afternoon reads, "Fox News, Breitbart Falsely Suggest Jewish Family Is to Blame for Cancellation of Christmas Play." The Slate piece acknowledges that the parents in question are unnamed in both pieces — but it fails to note that neither the Fox News story nor the Breitbart story says anything about the parents' Jewish faith.

TheBlaze's story also does not name parents or their Jewish faith — and notes the district spokeswoman's statement that while complaints about the play led to a second look at it, class time usage was the reason it was canceled.

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A follow-up story by local TV station WHTM reported that the school district changed its original story about the cancellation of "A Christmas Carol":

ABC27 News heard from parents who said the play was canceled this year because of a complaint about the line “God bless us, every one.”

When ABC27 News spoke with the district, Zimmerman acknowledged on camera that complaint was what originally led to the examination of the play and the eventual decision was made that it took too much time away from curriculum.

The district has released a statement saying there was never a complaint about the play or the line.

Here's the relevant interview dialogue as recorded on video:

WHTM repoter: “So in other words, did a parent complaining about the 'God bless us, everyone' line — did that have anything to do with the decision?”

Zimmerman: “We heard from parents initially and that was what caused us to look at the scenario of what was happening at the play.”

But an FAQ posted on the district's website dated Dec. 21 indicates “there was no complaint” about the play, and the “God bless us, everyone" line was “absolutely not” responsible for reassessing the play.

TheBlaze on Friday didn't immediately hear back from Zimmerman after requesting her comment on the apparently conflicting statements. An automatic reply indicated she's out of the office until Jan. 3.

This story has been updated.