The O'Reilly Factor
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The O'Reilly Factor is a show on Fox News Channel hosted by commentator Bill O'Reilly that discusses current political and social issues with guests from both sides of the political spectrum.
The show premiered in 1996 along with the FOX News Channel. It was previously known as the O'Reilly Report, and his first guest was General Barry McCaffrey, then the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (or "Drug Czar"). The show is well-known for its confrontational approach, with O'Reilly often getting into heated arguments with guests. While he tends to turn some people away from his show with his brash attitude, he has also attracted millions of viewers with his distinctive, heavy-hitting interviewing style. He claims that his show is a "no spin zone" and that "the spin stops here," though many observers from both sides of the political spectrum consider O'Reilly (and his show) for the most part conservative in viewpoint. O'Reilly can also be compassionate at times, especially when speaking to victims of crime. O'Reilly ends each episode of The Factor by reading mail sent in by viewers, which is usually equally divided between those that like him and those that hate him. Commonly, both letters accusing O'Reilly of having a left-wing bias and letters accusing him of having a right-wing bias will be included in the batch. Many times that may include an extreme right, extreme left, and a more neutral point of view of the subject. Despite the mix of views in the letters selected for on-air reading, columnists and news broadcasters routinely call him a conservative pundit. However, he denies this.
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Format
The program is done "live to tape", meaning that unlike other Fox News Channel programs at night, The O'Reilly Factor is prerecorded. The program is live for breaking news or special events. The show usually tapes between 5 and 7 PM Eastern Standard Time, although some guests are interviewed before the "live to tape" period and are slotted in the program as appropriate. O'Reilly and his producers discuss potential topics twice a week. [1]
A producer will research the story and book guests for O'Reilly, and an information packet will be produced with possible angles for O'Reilly to explore. The producers will often "pre-interview" the guest so that they know what potential points he will make. [2] For each show, O'Reilly with the assistance of his staff will produce a script with the words for the "Talking Points Memo" and "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day" segments, and points of discussion and questions for the guests that will appear on the program. Guests dispute whether or not the show is edited. O'Reilly's producers deny that the program is edited after it appears on tape, but some guests have noted that interviews are edited after taping, mostly if the interviews exceed the length of a program (43 minutes when commercials and news breaks are added). [3][4]
O'Reilly divides his show into titled segments, appearing in the following general order. Not all segments appear in all programs, and occasionally segments will repeat.
- Talking Points Memo: O'Reilly's commentary on a current event or the state of the country. This does not appear when there is a substitute host.
- Top Story: O'Reilly covers one of the most important stories of the day, with interviews with newsmakers, noted analysts, or Fox News Channel reporters. If there is nothing breaking, the Top Story will often expand on the subject covered in the Talking Points Memo with a guest that either rebuts or concurs with the memo.
- Impact: O'Reilly focuses on issues of crime and the law in this segment. Updates on criminal investigations, trials, and lawsuits are highlighted. Other times, issues relating to government relations and agencies are featured, as are stories about the Iraq War.
- Unresolved Problem: O'Reilly focuses on an issue which he feels is not sufficiently covered by other media.
- Personal Story: O'Reilly invites an author of a best selling book, a newsmaker thrust into the spotlight, someone who has experienced an event currently in the news, or someone who has interviewed a newsmaker. The goal of this segment is to have the guest relate his or her personal experiences about the topic.
- Factor Follow-Up: O'Reilly revisits an issue discussed in a previous edition of the Factor.
- Back of the Book: Various interesting topics will be placed in this segment, which is one of the last segments (hence the name). The tone can range the gamut from extremely serious to light hearted.
- The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day: a brief segment highlighting something O'Reilly finds absurd.
- Factor Mail: O'Reilly reads brief snippets of electronic mail sent to him.
Occasionally, the following segments appear:
- Children at Risk: O'Reilly covers issues relating to the health and well-being of children and adolescents.
- Factor Investigation: O'Reilly invites guests who have investigated a person or organization that O'Reilly dislikes.
- Fridays with Geraldo: Sometimes its own segment, other times rolled into one of the above segments, O'Reilly invites Geraldo Rivera, of the Fox News-produced syndicated Geraldo At Large, on the show to discuss a topic of O'Reilly's interest.
- Bloviating with Bill: A regular viewer gets a chance to debate O'Reilly.
When O'Reilly cannot host the show, Fox News Channel selects his replacement. Depending on the substitute's time frame, the program may be live more often, especially with John Gibson.
Vocabulary
After reading the viewer's e-mails, O'Reilly usually ends by encouraging the viewers to contact him, but requests them to keep their comments pithy and not to bloviate (adding with tongue in cheek: "That is my job"). O'Reilly continuously uses words that are out of the standard vocabulary of the average viewer, telling them to "run to the dictionary." Opinions on O’Reilly’s use of such "vocabulary" words range from enjoyment to hatred. Some viewers enjoy his use of words out of the mainstream by allowing them to expand their own vocabularies. However, others resent them, believing he is only using such words to prop himself up by appearing more intelligent than his audience. To this end, it is worth noting that he tends to use the same handful of words repeatedly.
Below is a list of known words used by Bill O'Reilly:
- Province - range of one's proper duties and functions
- Popinjay – a vain, talkative person
- Pithy – forceful and brief
- Bloviate – to discourse at length in a pompous or boastful manner
- Logorrhea - pathologically excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness
- Garrulous – trivial or rambling talk
- Truculent – aggressively hostile
- Vituperative – marked by harshly abusive criticism
- Excrementitious - relating to any cast-out waste material
Regular guests
- John Gibson, The Big Story with John Gibson (show usually is live when Gibson hosts, because Gibson usually has his regular show at 5 PM.
- Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House
- Ellis Henican, Fox News analyst & Newsday columnist
- John Kasich, special guest host
- Michelle Malkin, Fox News contributor
- Rachel Marsden, Canadian contributor
- Dick Morris, Fox News political analyst
- Andrew Napolitano, Fox News senior judicial analyst
- Geraldo Rivera, Fox News reporter at large
- Al Sharpton, civil rights activist
- Tony Snow, special guest host
- Jesse Watters, Factor field producer
- Juan Williams, Fox News contributor
Frequent Topics
- Iraq War
- Jessica's Law-O'Reilly is pushing for legislation in all 50 states to pass the law. He has states shaded based on which ones are supporting it and those that resist it.
- Traditionalists vs. "Secular-Progressives"-O'Reilly believes there is a "culture war" between these two lines of thinking.
Parodies
Image:Colbert word.jpg On October 17, 2005, a new show called The Colbert Report premiered on Comedy Central. The show, hosted by Stephen Colbert, is a satirical spoof of The O'Reilly Factor, spoofing both its format and the mannerisms and ideology of O'Reilly, whom Colbert calls Papa Bear. Colbert makes no secret of his spoofing O'Reilly: upon hearing the news that O'Reilly said he likes The Colbert Report, Stephen declared on-air that "I like you too. In fact, if it wasn't for you, this show wouldn't exist." Many of Stephen Colbert's attitudes, actions, or program segments are directly inspired by O'Reilly's show.
The O'Reilly Factor has also been spoofed on Saturday Night Live by Darrell Hammond and on Mad TV by Michael McDonald (actor).
Allegations of Bias
In his book, The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly wrote: "You might be wondering if I'm conservative, liberal, libertarian, or exactly what... 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. I'm conservative on some issues, liberal on others, and sane on most."[5] Although he does come under fire from the far-right on several issues, notably some of his decidedly moderate stances on homosexual rights, most of O'Reilly's criticism comes from liberals. Most of O'Reilly's views are well-established conservative beliefs. These include his stances on American foreign policy (the war in Iraq), support of supply-side economics, and furthering restrictions on immigration. On some issues, particularly the issue of illegal immigration, he is opposed to the policies of the current Bush administration, although most self-described conservatives disagree with the Bush administration on this issue themselves.[6]
During discussions about controversial subjects, The O'Reilly Factor typically features guests with opposing viewpoints. Regardless of Mr. O'Reilly's assesment and opinion, he often grants airtime to both sides of the spectrum on most issues. However, he has been known to interrupt a guest when he feels that the guest is "spinning" (or when he disagrees with) the subject, and he often interjects his opinion during the debate. O'Reilly acknowledges his show is an editorial program rather than a strictly neutral news report. [7]
Regardless of the content of the show, O'Reilly always presents an equal number of letters from conservatives accusing him of being too liberal, and from liberals accusing him of being too conservative. It is unknown whether this equal proportion is indicative of all the viewer mail he gets, especially since criticism of O'Reilly over being a conservative is far more widespread, particularly on the Internet, in numerous newspaper editorial columns, and even by politicians.
There are numerous documented controversies over O'Reilly's current and previous ties to various conservative political organizations, including the Republican Party, which further add to his perception of being a conservative. For example, O'Reilly is a former member of the Republican Party (though is now a registered Independent) [8], is openly involved in the Thomas More Law Center, an organization that litigates for a variety of conservative Christian causes, such as banning same-sex marriage and abortion and teaching creationism in public schools, and has used his television show to call on people to vote against Democratic senator Tom Daschle [9] and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jon Corzine [10], while rarely criticising Republicans over their politics, choosing instead to criticise them over corruption, failure to act on various matters of public concern, and other apolitical issues.
Some claim the show has a tendency to exclude guests who are neither Republican nor Democrat, thus showing O'Reilly's bias in favor of the two-party system. During the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, O'Reilly's show allegedly reneged at the last minute on granting Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik air time. [11] However, Ralph Nader has been a guest during both his 2000 and 2004 campaigns for president and also after the 9/11 attacks. [12][13]
On Bill O'Reilly's off days, the show is guest-hosted by openly right-of-center or sometimes outright conservative Fox News personalities like John Kasich, Tony Snow, and John Gibson, and rarely hosted by a liberal (Geraldo Rivera being the exception). This adds to the perception that Fox News Channel considers The O'Reilly Factor to be a conservative show, and tries to maintain this image through the show's guest hosts.
People Who Have "Dodged" the Factor
O'Reilly has invited people who have been critical of him(or vice versa) and/or dealing with a controversial situation that have declined or ignored the invitation. O'Reilly may say they are "hiding under their desk" or "dodging" or may just say the invitee declined. He has even refered to them as cowards at times. Some guests may have initially not gone on the show but then end up appearing later.
Some that have been invited but have not gone on include:
- Hillary Clinton--O'Reilly believes that Clinton has never answered any truly tough questions and has on occasion said that he will have her as a guest on for the entire hour. In an interview Clinton once said that she felt sorry for him.
- Al Gore--Gore did not appear on the show when he was running for president in 2000. O'Reilly has claimed that Gore may have been put over the top in a close race for president if he appeared on the show and did well.
- Jesse Jackson--O'Reilly investigated Jackson's tax exempt status to see if he was violating separation of church and state. Jackson was invited to explain himself but never came on.
- John Kerry--Like Gore, did not go on while running for president. O'Reilly ended up asking another guest the questions that he intended to ask Kerry.
- VH1--O'Reilly was critical of VH1 for producing the show Music Behind Bars. No one came on from VH1 to defend their position.