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Bill O'Reilly (political commentator)

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For the cricketer, see Bill O'Reilly (cricketer).
Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly at Camp Striker (December 2006)
Born (1949-09-10) September 10, 1949 (age 75)
United States New York City, NY, USA
Occupation(s)Author, syndicated columnist, television and talk radio personality.
SpouseMaureen E. McPhilmy
Websitebilloreilly.com

William James "Bill" O'Reilly, Jr. (born (1949-09-10) September 10, 1949 (age 75))[2] is the host of the cable news program The O'Reilly Factor, broadcast on the Fox News Channel. Prior to hosting The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly served as anchor of the entertainment program, Inside Edition.[3] O'Reilly also hosts The Radio Factor, a radio program syndicated by Westwood One, and has written six books.

Although sometimes referred to as a conservative,[4] O'Reilly is a self-described independent and has used several terms to describe his views. In his book Culture Warrior, he identifies himself as a traditionalist and a populist. Previously a registered Republican,[5]O'Reilly has been registered as having no party affiliation since 2000.[5]

Biography

Early life/Education

O'Reilly was born in New York City to Irish Catholic parents William and Angela O'Reilly, from Brooklyn, New York and Bergen County, New Jersey. His father was an accountant for the oil company Caltex. In 1951, his family moved to Levittown on Long Island.[6] After graduating from Chaminade High School, a private Catholic boys high school in Mineola, New York in 1967, O'Reilly attended Marist College, a small, co-educational private (and at the time, Catholic) institution in Poughkeepsie, New York. While at Marist, O'Reilly played punter in the National Club Football Association,[7] and was also a columnist and feature writer for the school's newspaper, The Circle. As an honors student majoring in history, he spent his junior year of college abroad, attending Queen Mary College at the University of London.[8] O'Reilly received his B.A. in History in 1971. He played semi-professional baseball during this time as a pitcher for the Brooklyn Monarchs, and had an unsuccessful tryout with the American professional baseball team, the New York Mets. O'Reilly later earned a Masters Degree in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University and another Master of Public Administration from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Broadcasting career

File:0301061billo1.jpg
Bill O'Reilly in 1975 as the "Action Consumer troubleshooter" for ABC affiliate WNEP in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.[9]

After graduating from Marist College, O'Reilly moved to Miami, Florida at age 21, where he taught English and history at Monsignor Pace High School for two years. After leaving Miami, O'Reilly returned to school, earning a M.A. in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University in 1976. While attending Boston University, he was a reporter and columnist for various local newspapers and alternative news weeklies, including The Boston Phoenix. O'Reilly did his broadcast journalism internship in Miami during this time, and was also an entertainment writer and movie critic for The Miami Herald.

O'Reilly's early television news career included reporting and anchoring positions at WNEP-TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he also reported the weather. At WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas, O'Reilly was awarded the Dallas Press Club Award for excellence in investigative reporting. He then moved to KMGH-TV in Denver, Colorado where he won a Local Emmy Award for his coverage of a skyjacking.[10][11] In 1978 while in Denver, Bill was offered a job as the Marlboro Man. He turned it down because he didn’t smoke nor wanted to promote it. (radio factor/ Feb. 21, 2007). O'Reilly also worked for KATU-TV in Portland, Oregon, as well as TV stations in Hartford, Connecticut (WFSB-TV), and in Boston, Massachusetts.[11]

In 1980, he anchored his own program on WCBS-TV in New York where he won his second Local Emmy for an investigation of corrupt city marshals. He was promoted to the network as a CBS News correspondent and covered the wars in El Salvador and the Falkland Islands from his base in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1982). He later left CBS over, among other tensions, a dispute concerning the uncredited use in a report by Bob Schieffer of riot footage shot by O'Reilly's crew in Buenos Aires during the Falklands conflict. (A 1998 novel by O'Reilly, Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder, depicts a television reporter who has a similar dispute over a Falklands War report. The character proceeds to exact his revenge on network staff in a series of graphically-described murders.)[12]

In 1986, O'Reilly joined ABC News as a correspondent for ABC World News Tonight.

In 1989, O'Reilly joined the nationally syndicated King World (now CBS) program Inside Edition, a tabloid/gossip television program in competition with A Current Affair. He started as senior correspondent and backup anchor for British TV host David Frost, and subsequently became the program's anchor after Frost's termination. In addition to being one of the first American broadcasters to cover the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, O'Reilly also obtained the first exclusive interview with murderer Joel Steinberg and was the first television host from a national current affairs program on the scene of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

In 1995, O'Reilly was replaced by former NBC News and CBS News anchor Deborah Norville on Inside Edition. He then enrolled at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he received a Master's Degree in Public Administration. Upon leaving Harvard, O'Reilly was hired by Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of the then startup FOX News Channel, to anchor The O'Reilly Report. The show soon moved to a new time slot, and was renamed The O'Reilly Factor.

O'Reilly's radio program reaches 3.25 million-plus listeners and is carried by more than 400 radio stations.[13] Conservative magazine NewsMax's "Top 25 Talk Radio Host" list selected O'Reilly to the #2 spot as most influential host in the nation.[14]

Personal life

O'Reilly married Maureen E. McPhilmy, a public relations executive, in 1995. They have one daughter, Madeline, born in 1998, and a son, Spencer, born in 2003. According to an October 2005 interview in Newsday, O'Reilly hired bodyguards and is very sensitive about the general public taking pictures of him, calling some of them "stealth paparazzi".[15] O'Reilly has requested that no photographs of his home or family be made public. He and his family now live in Manhasset, New York.[16]

The O'Reilly Factor

Main article: The O'Reilly Factor

O'Reilly's television show, The O'Reilly Factor, is routinely the highest-rated show of the three major U.S. 24-hour cable news channels (CNN, FOX News, and MSNBC). The show is taped late in the afternoon at a studio in New York City and airs every weekday on the FOX News Channel at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

American Red Cross and the United Way

In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, O'Reilly devoted substantial time on his television show and wrote pieces alleging that the United Way of America and American Red Cross failed to deliver millions of dollars in donated money, raised by the organizations in the name of the disaster, to the families of those killed in the attacks.[17][18] O'Reilly asserted that the organizations misrepresented their intentions for the money being raised by not distributing all of the 9/11 relief fund to the victims.[19] Actor George Clooney defended the United Way from O'Reilly's criticisms of a telethon that raised $129.5 million, plus an additional $12 million in CD and DVD sales, according to Jeannette Reed, spokeswoman for the United Way of New York City. The funds were given to victims and surviving families in the form of cash assistance, she said. Congressional hearings were called on the matter and an investigation by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer took place. Bernadette Healey, the president of the Red Cross, resigned shortly thereafter.[20] In sworn testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee in November 2001, Congressman J.D. Hayworth asserted that media pressure, most notably from O'Reilly, helped cause the Red Cross to increase payments to affected people and helped cause other charities to participate in an oversight database established by Spitzer.[21]

Political beliefs and points of view

Main article: Bill O'Reilly political beliefs and points of view

Controversy and Criticism

Main article: Criticism of Bill O'Reilly

Over the years, there have been several controversial issues highlighted in O'Reilly's print and broadcast work. He has drawn criticism from others including Al Franken, Michael Savage, George Clooney, Ludacris, Joe Scarborough, Jon Stewart, Keith Olbermann, Media Matters for America, David Letterman, Michael Kinsley, and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, usually in response to criticism by him or disputes of his factual accuracy.

He has had disagreements with Rosie O'Donnell for expressing what he sees as far-left viewpoints, and has called upon Disney / ABC to "do the right thing" regarding Rosie's employment, noting that ABC fired Bill Maher when he called the acts of the 9/11 hijackers "Stupid maybe, but not cowardly". [22]

Fox News sued Al Franken over his book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, claiming that the book's satirical mockery of the network and of O'Reilly was a copyright violation. The title was critical of O'Reilly, among many others, and an unflattering image of O'Reilly from the show was included on the cover, along with Ann Coulter, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush. The counter-argument in the suit was that the book was a parody and could not be mistaken for a Fox News publication. On August 22, 2003, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin denied Fox's request for an injunction to block the publication of Franken's book, characterizing the network's claim as "wholly without merit, both factually and legally." Three days later, Fox filed to drop its lawsuit.

O'Reilly is frequently challenged by his critics, who question his accuracy on issues such as the Malmedy massacre (O'Reilly incorrectly blamed American soldiers for a heinous war crime of which they were in fact victims), and his claim that Inside Edition won two Peabody Awards (later a Polk Award) during his tenure as host. In the March 1, 2001 Washington Post "Reliable Source" column, Al Franken corrected O'Reilly's claim - it was actually a single Polk award (won for reporting that was done after O'Reilly left the show).[23] In the same column, O'Reilly admitted to confusing the two awards, and stated, "Al Franken is on a jihad against me." A few days later, O'Reilly changed the story, and stated that he had never made the Peabody claim (O'Reilly Factor, 3/13/01): "Guy says about me, couple of weeks ago, 'O'Reilly said he won a Peabody Award.' Never said it. You can't find a transcript where I said it."

However, on the May 19, 2000 broadcast of The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly repeatedly told a guest who brought up his "tabloid" past: "We won Peabody Awards. . . . We won Peabody awards. . . . A program that wins a Peabody Award, the highest award in journalism, and you're going to denigrate it?" O'Reilly had made the same claim on the May 8, 2000 broadcast of The O'Reilly Factor, as well as the claim of a single Peabody on the August 30, 1999 broadcast of the show.[24]

He has also discussed controversial topics such as his annual reports on the Secularization of Christmas, which he calls the "War on Christmas".[25]

The liberal media watch group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, has published a book entitled The "Oh Really?" Factor, by author Peter Hart (ISBN 158322601X). The book catalogues what are argued to be distortions and inaccuracies on the part of O'Reilly.

In January 2007, O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor stated that Missouri pre-teen Shawn Hornbeck, who was abducted at gunpoint[citation needed] by Michael J. Devlin and held captive by him for four years, had "liked ... his circumstances" and "had a lot more fun" with Devlin than with "his old parents". While some commentators wondered why the young boy had not tried to escape from his captor, O'Reilly went further, flatly stating that "Shawn had the freedom to get away if he wanted to."[26] Following his remarks, Lowe's canceled its advertising on the O'Reilly Factor, and the Naples, Florida Chapter of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children announced that O'Reilly's appearance at a $500-per-person fundraiser where he was to give the keynote address was cancelled. He was replaced by John Walsh.[27] The following month, Devlin was charged with multiple counts of forcible sodomy and producing child pornography.[28]

The Comedy Central program The Colbert Report, hosted by Stephen Colbert, parodies, among others, The O'Reilly Factor.[citation needed] Colbert has called his character a "well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot."[29] Colbert has continued his in-character satirization of O'Reilly in venues other than "The Colbert Report", most notably at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.

On the January 24, 2007 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly said that he was personally responsible for effecting the dismissal of the Roman Catholic Cardinal Archbishop of Boston. "I claim credit for getting Cardinal Law booted out of this country," O'Reilly said, and then stated that his relentless reporting on Cardinal Law's immoral and criminal behavior is why Law was dismissed.[citation needed]

A study by researchers at the Indiana University School of Journalism analyzed O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" editorials using propaganda analysis techniques, finding that O'Reilly's rhetoric included frequent name-calling, heavy use of propaganda devices and use of fear by presenting unresolved threats. [30] Bill O'Reilly defended himself by claiming that his usage of words such as "liberal" and conservative" were considered name-calling by the study. He also claimed out that the Media Matters organization was involved. [1]. The study authors responded that words such as "liberal" or "conservative" were not considered as name-calling unless they were linked with a derogatory qualifier and that the study received no funding from Media Matters or anyone else. O'Reilly further criticised Mediamatters.com on an April 2007 appearance on Irish talk show The Late Late Show , he referred to Media Matters as one of the most evil websites in the world, an would later be highly critical of the show and the show's host Pat Kenny in his blog on BillOreilly.com[31] Both the authors and Media Matters indicated that Media Matters came across the study via the Indiana University press release regarding the study.[31][32]

Publicity of biography

Marvin Kitman, author of The Man Who Would Not Shut Up: The Rise of Bill O'Reilly, says that O'Reilly suggested he would support the publicity campaign for Kitman's book. Instead, Kitman says, O'Reilly has intimidated Fox News reporters to prevent them from interviewing Kitman. Kitman said that he was surprised to find that O'Reilly was "a hypocrite" because he "wasn't in favor of telling it like it is" when it came to negative information about himself.[33]

Sexual harassment controversy

On October 13, 2004, O'Reilly filed a preemptive lawsuit against O'Reilly Factor producer Andrea Mackris, her lawyer Benedict P. Morelli, and Morelli's law firm for extortion, contending Mackris had privately demanded more than $60 million (USD) to settle a claim of sexual harassment. Morelli did not deny that they had demanded the settlement prior to filing the complaint, but did deny the allegations of extortion.

Later that same day, Mackris filed a complaint of sexual harassment against O'Reilly, claiming that O'Reilly had made numerous references to "phone sex, vibrators, threesomes, masturbation, the loss of his virginity, and other sexual fantasies".[34] The details of some of these fantasies resembled scenes in a book written by O'Reilly, Those Who Trespass. The specificity with which Ms. Mackris recounted O'Reilly's telephone calls lead many to believe that she had taped the calls. The existence of these tapes, and O'Reilly's desire that they never be made public, were seen by many as the reason for the prompt settlement of the suit in Mackris's favor. According to many accounts, O'Reilly paid many millions to make the lawsuit go away.[35][36][37] The complaint also sought additional damages and described alleged actions of retaliation by Fox, et al.[37] Both cases were settled out of court and all parties agreed to keep the terms of the settlement confidential.[37]

Published works

O'Reilly writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column that appears in hundreds of newspapers, including the New York Post and the Chicago Sun-Times.[38]

He has written five non-fiction books and a novel, entitled Those Who Trespass.

Books

References

  1. ^ Forbes, Bill O'Reilly, The Top 100 Celebrities. Accessed January 8, 2007.
  2. ^ Pragoff, Cat. "Fox News' Bill O'Reilly was in classroom before newsroom", New Hampshire Union Leader, February 9, 2005. Page D10
  3. ^ O'Reilly's Fox News biography
  4. ^ "On the Record with Greta," FoxNews.com, Accessed May 20, 2007.
  5. ^ a b Paul Farhi, The Washington Post, The Life of O'Reilly, December 13, 2000. Retrieved May 21, 2007.
  6. ^ O’Reilly and the Levittown Issue: Answered
  7. ^ Duffy, Don (1970). ""Campus Stuff" (The Circle)" (PDF). Poughkeepsie, NY: Marist College (Originally published in The Circle on November 19, 1970). Retrieved December 26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Marist (2001). "2001 Commencement Program". Poughkeepsie, NY: Marist College, Office of Alumni Relations (Originally published in the May 19, 2001 Commencement Program). Retrieved December 26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ TheSmokingGun.com (2006) "Bill O'Reilly, Big Pimpin': At 26, the future Fox News star just wanted out of Scranton" via heirs of an O'Reilly correspo<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Lupin/navpop.css&action=raw&ctype=text/css&dontcountme=s">ndent, accessed October 2, 2006
  10. ^ Bill O'Reilly's Bio Accessed August 2006
  11. ^ a b Malinowski, Scoop (November 8, 2004). "Get 2 Know Bill O'Reilly!". TheBioFILE.com. Retrieved September 9. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  12. ^ "Fear Factor - Bill O’Reilly’s baroque period", Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker, March 20, 2006
  13. ^ The State of the News Media 2007.Annual Report on American Journalism,2007.
  14. ^ Influential Talk Radio Hosts.NewsMax.com,October, 2006.
  15. ^ Gay, Verne (2005). "What's hate got to do with it?" (October 18 ed.). Newsday.
  16. ^ Bill O'Reilly Birdseye, cryptome.org
  17. ^ "O'Reilly rips celeb 'phonies'", Richard Johnson with Paula Froelich and Chris Wilson, PapillonsArtPalace.com, November 2, 2001
  18. ^ "Fight the power", Bill O'Reilly, WorldNetDaily, December 13, 2001
  19. ^ "Red Cross Diverts Donations From Sept. 11 Victims", Kevin Curran, NewsMax.com, October 31, 2001
  20. ^ "Red Cross President Resigns Under Pressure From Board", Grant Williams, Philanthropy.com, October 26, 2001
  21. ^ Opening Statement of the Hon. J.D. Hayworth, Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Oversight of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Hearing on Response by Charitable Organizations to the Recent Terrorist Attacks, Committee on Ways & Means, November 8, 2001
  22. ^ Natalie Finn, E! Online, O'Reilly Attacks The View's O'Donnell Factor, Mar 31, 2007. Retrieved April 23, 2007.
  23. ^ George Polk Award for Journalism, Accessed January 8, 2007.
  24. ^ "The Washington Post Reliable Source"
  25. ^ "Occurrences of the phrase "War on Christmas" on billoreilly.com". Retrieved 2006-10-24.
  26. ^ ""O'Reilly, unapologetic for remarks about the "fun" had by kidnapping victim..."". Retrieved 2007-2-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  27. ^ "Statement". National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Collier County, Florida Branch. 2007-02-09. Retrieved 2007-02-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. ^ ""Boys' kidnapping suspect faces sodomy charges"". Retrieved 2007-2-22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  29. ^ Safer, Morley (2006-08-13). "The Colbert Report, Morley Safer Profiles Comedy Central's 'Fake' Newsman". CBS News. Retrieved 2007-03-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  30. ^ "Content analysis of O'Reilly's rhetoric finds spin to be a 'factor'". Indiana University. May 2, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  31. ^ a b Conway, Mike; Grabe, Maria Elizabeth (May 16, 2007). "Bill O'Reilly and Krippendorff's Alpha". Los Angeles Times. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
  32. ^ "Thoroughly debunked, O'Reilly dreams up new, apparently sinister Soros-Media Matters link". Media Matters for America. May 4, 2007.
  33. ^ Olbermann, Keith (2007-03-02). "Countdown with Keith Olbermann for March 1". MSNBC. Retrieved 2007-03-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. ^ "O'Reilly Hit With Sex Harass Suit". The Smoking Gun. Courtroom Television Network LLC. October 13, 2004. Retrieved 2007-05-28.
  35. ^ "O'Reilly: Female Aide in $60M Extort Bid". The Smoking Gun. Courtroom Television Network LLC. October 13, 2004. Retrieved 2005-07-11.
  36. ^ Howard Kurtz (October 15, 2004). "O'Reilly, Accuser Air Their Cases". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-05-28.
  37. ^ a b c Howard Kurtz (October 29, 2004). "Bill O'Reilly, Producer Settle Harassment Suit". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-05-28.
  38. ^ BillOReilly.com, Newspaper Column List, Accessed January 8, 2007.
  39. ^ a b c d New York Times Best Seller; Number Ones Listing; Non Fiction By Date, Hawes.com
  40. ^ "Bill's Bio". BillOReilly.com.
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