commentator

Bill O'Reilly (commentator)

William James O'Reilly, Jr. (born September 10, 1949) is an American television/radio host, author, syndicated columnist, and self-proclaimed "traditionalist" political commentator. He is the host of the cable news program The O'Reilly Factor. Prior to hosting The O'Reilly Factor, he served as anchor of the entertainment program, Inside Edition.

O'Reilly also hosts The Radio Factor, a talk radio program syndicated by Westwood One, and is the author of seven books.

Biography

Early life/Education

O'Reilly was born in New York City to 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. After graduating from Chaminade High School, a private Catholic boys high school in Mineola, in 1967, O'Reilly attended Marist College. While at Marist, O'Reilly played punter in the National Club Football Association, and was also a writer for the school's newspaper, The Circle. An honors student, he majored in history. He spent his junior year of college abroad, attending Queen Mary College at the University of London. 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. 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. O'Reilly later returned to school and earned a M.A. in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University (where he attended school with Howard Stern) 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 also earned a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. At Harvard, he was also a student of Marvin Kalb.

Broadcasting career

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. O'Reilly also worked for KATU-TV in Portland, Oregon, as well as TV stations in Hartford, Connecticut (WFSB-TV), and in Boston, Massachusetts.

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. In 1982, 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. He later left CBS over 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.)

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 Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he received a Master's degree in Public Administration. After Harvard, he 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. According to the talk radio industry publication Talkers Magazine, O'Reilly is #11 on the "Heavy Hundred", a list of the 100 most important talk show hosts in America. Conservative Internet news site NewsMax's "Top 25 Talk Radio Host" list selected O'Reilly to the #2 spot as most influential host in the nation.

Personal life

O'Reilly married Maureen E. McPhilmy, a public relations executive, in 1995. They have a daughter and a son. O'Reilly currently resides in suburban Manhasset, New York.

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 and began the trend toward more opinion-oriented prime-time cable news programming. 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.

Political beliefs and points of view

The O'Reilly Factor and O'Reilly's talk-radio program, The Radio Factor, focus on news and commentary related to politics most of the time.

He has coined the term "traditionalist" when describing his points of view on various topics, saying the term is not limited to the normal party lines, although his commentary generally supports conservative viewpoints.

O'Reilly has long said that he does not belong to or identify with any political party. In 2000, however, The New York Daily News determined that he was registered with the Republican Party in the state of New York. He said that there had been "no box to fill in" to register as an Independent; in fact, the form did have a box labeled "I do not wish to enroll in a party." Since this disclosure, he has registered as an independent.

In a 2003 interview on NPR, O'Reilly said:

Controversy, criticism, and parody

Over the years, O'Reilly has been criticized by or had disputes with a number of public figures including Al Franken, Bill Moyers, George Clooney, 50 Cent, Rosie O'Donnell, Arianna Huffington, Mark Cuban, Nas, Joe Scarborough, and Keith Olbermann, sometimes in response to commentary by O'Reilly. Progressive media watchdog organizations like Media Matters for America and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting have criticized O'Reilly's reporting on a variety of issues, accusing him of distorting facts and using misleading or erroneous statistics.

O'Reilly is considered the main inspiration for comedian Stephen Colbert's satirical character on the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, which features Colbert in a "full-dress parody" of The O'Reilly Factor. On the show, Colbert refers to O'Reilly as "Papa Bear."

On October 13, 2004, O'Reilly filed a lawsuit against O'Reilly Factor producer Andrea Mackris, her lawyer Benedict P. Morelli, and Morelli's law firm for extortion, contending Mackris had privately threatened to charge O'Reilly with sexual harassment unless he paid her more than $60 million (USD). Later that same day. Mackris filed a complaint of sexual harassment against O'Reilly. Mackris claimed that O'Reilly had made sexually explicit phone calls, including a "vile and degrading monologue about sex." O'Reilly denied engaging in any physical or sexual assault or "offensive touching." He also alleged that Mackris' motives were financial and political in nature. According to newspaper reports, O'Reilly likely paid Mackris millions of dollars as part of a settlement, whereby both lawsuits were dismissed, but the terms of the out-of-court agreement are confidential. The lawsuit was dropped on October 28, 2004.

Books and other media

O'Reilly has authored seven books:

Those Who Trespass. Novel.
Bancroft Press, April 1998; reprint, Broadway Books, February 2004. 288 pages. ISBN 0-9631246-8-4.
The O'Reilly Factor: The Good, the Bad, and the Completely Ridiculous in American Life. Non-fiction.
Broadway Books, September 2000; reprint, Broadway Books, March 2002. 224 pages. ISBN 0-7679-0528-8.
Reached #1 on the New York Times' Non-Fiction Best Seller list.
The No Spin Zone. Non-fiction.
Broadway Books, October 2001; reprint, Broadway Books, March 2003. 208 pages. ISBN 0-7679-0848-1.
Reached #1 on the New York Times' Non-Fiction Best Seller list.
Who's Looking Out For You?. Non-fiction.
Broadway Books, September 2003; reprint, Broadway Books, September 2004. 224 pages. ISBN 0-7679-1379-5.
Reached #1 on the New York Times' Non-Fiction Best Seller list.
The O'Reilly Factor For Kids: A Survival Guide for America's Families. Non-fiction.
HarperEntertainment, September 2004; reprint, Harper Paperbacks, September 2005. 208 pages. ISBN 0-06-054424-4.
Co-authored with Charles Flowers. Best-selling non-fiction children's book of 2005.
Culture Warrior. Non-fiction.
Broadway Books, September 2006. 240 pages. ISBN 0-7679-2092-9.
Reached #1 on the New York Times' Non-Fiction Best Seller list.
Achieved more than one million copies in print in its first three months.
Kids Are Americans Too. Non-fiction.
William Morrow (October 16, 2007). 160 pages. ISBN 0060846763.
"A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity: A Memoir" was released on September 23, 2008.

In addition, O'Reilly writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column that appears in numerous newspapers, including the New York Post and the Chicago Sun-Times.