Bill O'Reilly (political commentator)
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Bill O'Reilly is a television show host of top rated cable news show, The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel in the United States. The self-proclaimed political "independent" also hosts a radio program syndicated by Westwood One called The Radio Factor. O'Reilly first gained notoriety as the tabloid TV host of Inside Edition.
The O'Reilly Factor
O'Reilly's television show The O'Reilly Factor discusses political and social issues of the day, with both conservative and liberal guests. His show is famous for its direct, no-nonsense approach, with O'Reilly often getting into heated arguments (and sometimes shouting matches) with guests. While he tends to turn some people away from his show with his brash attitude, he has attracted millions of viewers with his confrontational interviews. He decrees on his show that it is a "no spin zone" and that "the spin stops here." O'Reilly ends each episode of The Factor by reading mail sent in by viewers. His mail is usually equally divided between viewers that like him and viewers that hate him.
Al Franken controversy
O'Reilly asked Fox News to sue Al Franken and his publisher for libel before the release of Franken's 2003 book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Instead, Fox News sued for trademark infringement over the use of the phrase "fair and balanced" in the book's title. (O'Reilly said he encouraged the lawsuit on "Tim Russert," and that he agreed with Fox's argument. Later, in an interview with Terry Gross on the program, "Fresh Air" on October 8, 2003, O'Reilly stated that he had nothing to do with Fox's lawsuit, that he had considered suing Franken for defamation but was told that as a public person the standard of proof would be too high to sustain a lawsuit.) The lawsuit was dismissed by the judge as "wholly without merit." Franken's book accuses O'Reilly of making misleading statements, such as implying the television show Inside Edition won two Peabody Awards for journalism while he was there, when it actually won one less-prestigous Polk Award over a year after O'Reilly had left.
Political opinion
Some think O'Reilly is a Republican and others a Democrat because his positions include a mix of conservative and liberal opinions. Among his views:
Traditionally conservative views
- For cutting taxes across the board, and eliminating taxes on inherited fortunes
- For troops on the U.S. border with Mexico
- For using animals for food, clothing, entertainment, and experiments
- Against separation of church and state
- Harsher prosecution for "hard drug" offenders
Traditionally liberal views
- Against the death penalty
- Believes global warming is real and should be addressed by raising automobile fuel efficiency standards and other measures
- Believes the term "liberal media" is "bogus"; that conservative commentators have a bigger audience than liberal commentators
- For campaign finance reform
- For de-criminalizing marijuana
A viewer once wrote to give O'Reilly a rough statistical analysis of his political viewpoints and found O'Reilly to take more conservative viewpoints roughly 60% of the time, more liberal viewpoints 30% of the time, and completely moderate viewpoints 10% of the time.
Politics
In his book, The O'Reilly Factor, he answered the question of his political affiliation this way: "You might be wondering if whether I'm conservative, liberal, libertarian, or exactly what... See, I don't want to fit any of those labels, because I believe that the truth doesn't have labels. When I see corruption, I try to expose it. When I see exploitation, I try to fight it. That's my political position."
O'Reilly often uses harsh language to criticize the left, in spite of having a mixture of conservative and liberal positions himself. O'Reilly has told his viewers that "we are becoming a secular, quasi-socialist society" ("The O'Reilly Factor," October 14, 2003).
Al Franken, in his 2003 book, contradicted O'Reilly's claim that he had always been registered to vote as an independent. Franken backed up this claim by reproducing a copy of O'Reilly's voter registration papers which show him to be a registered Republican.
Other views
When his show and the Fox News Channel were first rising in popularity, O'Reilly portrayed himself as something of a populist and media outsider, fighting for the people against the moneyed elite, such as powerful politicians and corporate and media bigwigs. However, in a twist of irony, the tremendous successes of his show and his books have made him a millionaire himself who wields considerable power. Nevertheless, he emphasizes his small-town upbringing (he claims to have been raised in Levittown, New York, though this has been disputed by Franken and others) and prides himself on being a tough interviewer.
Books
- Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Murder and Television (1998), ISBN 0963124684
- The O'Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ridiculous in American Life (2000), ISBN 0767905288
- The No-Spin Zone: Confrontations with the Powerful and Famous in America (2001) , ISBN 0767908481
- Who's Looking Out for You (September 2003), ISBN 0767913795