Bill O'Reilly

William James "Willy" O'Reilly, Jr. AKA Bill O'Reilly, or somtimes Mr. O'Reilly,(born September 10, 1949) is the host of the unpopular conservative news program The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News, he is popular among the uneducated conservative population of America. Most of the time, he yells nonsense peppered with neocon catchphrases, but occasionally he takes something a liberal said, corrupts it so that all of the content is gone, plays it, then makes fun of them, then introduces the content of the liberal's statement as an idea he just came up with that is conservative for some reason.

He regularly gets stomped in the debates he stages on his show, sometimes even by high school students. When this happens, he cuts their microphones and insults them and/or their families, and he regularly tells his guests "I'll give you the last word," then lets them say a little bit of something before interrupting and talking over them until he goes to commercial.

He is effectively immune from defamation and libel lawsuits due to his mental illness. In order to sue someone for defamation, one must be able to demonstrate malice; that is, that the defamer knew what he was saying was a lie. According to the lawyers consulted by former guest Jeremy Glick, O'Reilly's lawyers could easily show that he lies so compulsively that his mind can no longer distinguish what he says from reality.

"'Coming next, drug addicted pregnant women no longer have anything to fear from the authorities thanks to the Supreme Court. Both sides on this in a moment.' - Bill O'Reilly (O'Reilly Factor, 3/23/01)"

Living in the Slums of Private Schools
In March, Slate.com editor Michael Kinsley infuriated O'Reilly by suggesting the Fox host's background was less proletarian than he lets on (Washington Post, 3/1/01). O'Reilly makes much of his "working class" upbringing in Levittown, Long Island. His book's dust-jacket bio begins: "Bill O'Reilly rose from humble beginnings to become a nationally known broadcast journalist," and O'Reilly says his father, who retired in 1978, "never earned more than $35,000 a year in his life."

But O'Reilly's mother told a reporter her son actually grew up in Westbury, Long Island, a "middle-class suburb a few miles from Levittown," where he attended a private school (Washington Post, 12/13/00). And his father's $35,000 income in 1978 is equivalent to more than $90,000 today in inflation-adjusted dollars.

Hate of Homosexuals
Bill claims that he does not hate homosexuals and supports civil unions. However, he doesn't think gay marriage is acceptable because it would be redefining a whole word. He's worried that if gays continue their lifestyle, he would have to change his dictionary.

"'That's my advice to all homosexuals, whether they're in the Boy Scouts, or in the Army or in high school: Shut up, don't tell anybody what you do, your life will be a lot easier.' (7/7/00)" 

Examples of Bias in Reporting
When Bush won Senate passage of his tax cut plan, O'Reilly (5/24/01) belittled its opponents: "How on earth could 38 Democratic senators vote against it? . . . This is not a big tax cut. . . . A tax cut that puts money in the pockets of all working Americans is a good thing, period."

When Bush appointed Dick Cheney to formulate the administration's energy policy, O'Reilly (5/1/01) judged the former oil man a sound choice: "I would rather have a Cheney--even though I might disagree with him sometimes--at least trying to do something, than the hypocrites we had in [the] Clinton/Gore administration." And once the Bush/Cheney energy plan came under attack, O'Reilly ran interference for it. When John Passacantando of Greenpeace asserted that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would only yield six to nine months of oil (5/1/01), O'Reilly was not impressed. "That's your opinion!" he retorted. This is a favorite O'Reilly debating tactic: Faced with a factual statement he's unable to rebut, he accuses his guest of stating an opinion. When a journalist mentioned Israel's "illegal settlers" (7/18/00), O'Reilly replied: "All right, that's your opinion!" When a drug-policy advocate said marijuana impairs driving less than alcohol does (1/3/00), the answer was, "Well, that's your opinion!"

In addition O’Reilly frequently refuses to believe his guests-- even when they cite a source. When one Factor interviewee remarked (3/1/02) that "60 percent of all people will live in poverty for one year of their life," O’Reilly shot back: "Not in the United States. . . . No, that’s bogus. I mean, that’s a Socialist stat. You can believe it if you want to, but it’s not true." When the guest explained that the number comes from research at Cornell University, O’Reilly shot back: "Well, what more do I have to say?"-- as if any information coming from an Ivy League institution had to be wrong.

One person O'Reilly especially likes to "hammer" is Jesse Jackson. Since late 1998, when the Nexis news database began archiving the show's transcripts, The O'Reilly Factor has run an astounding total of 56 segments about Jesse Jackson (that is, with Jackson's name in the headline). That means that approximately one out of every 12 episodes of The O'Reilly Factor has featured a segment about Jackson -- over a period of two and a half years. 

In 2003, O’Reilly called for a boycott of French products in retaliation for French President Jacques Chirac’s stance on the Iraq war, later citing a non-existent publication as proof of the boycott’s success. O’Reilly has also consistently railed against what he calls the “War on Christmas,” a societal backlash towards the sacredness of a holiday marked by trampling deaths at Wal-Mart. During an interview with National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy (O’Reilly Factor, 2/5/02), O’Reilly claimed that "58 percent of single-mom homes are on welfare." When Gandy questioned that figure, O’Reilly held firm: "You can’t say no, Miss Gandy. That’s the stat. You can’t just dismiss it. . . . It’s 58 percent. That’s what it is from the federal government."

But by the next broadcast (2/6/02), O’Reilly was revising his accounting: "At this point, we have this from Washington, and it’s bad. 52 percent of families receiving public assistance are headed by a single mother, 52 percent." Not only is that a different number, it’s the reverse of the statistic he offered the previous night-- not the percentage of households headed by single mothers that receive welfare, but the percentage of families receiving public assistance headed by single mothers. That’s a distinction that O’Reilly did not attempt to clarify; he seemed unapologetic about emphatically putting forward an inaccurate statistic the night before.

The following night (2/7/02), O’Reilly came up with more solid figures, but they bore no resemblance to his original numbers: About 14 percent of single mothers receive federal welfare benefits, he now said-- less than one-fourth of his earlier claim. (He suggested that food stamps ought to be considered a kind of welfare, but that only gets him to 33 percent-- still 25 percentage points short.) O’Reilly explained that "it’s really hard to get a stat to say how many single moms percentage-wise get government assistance," though he’d found it easy enough to pull one out of the air just three nights earlier.

Mega Bias and Failure about the Iraq War
O'Reilly had been suggesting an Iraq link to September 11 as early as September 14, 2001: "Saddam Hussein...I believe is involved with this World Trade Center and Pentagon bombing. I believe that you're going to find out that money from Iraq flowed in and helped this happen." No such evidence has emerged since the six years since the war. In addition he suggested a link between Iraq and 9/11 just 3 days after the attacks, even though absolutely NO EVIDENCE WAS FOUND THEN OR SINCE THEN.

O'Reilly also presents the case for war in legal terms. "Number one, he has violated the Gulf War surrender terms," he explained (9/10/02). "Just that alone means the USA has a right to oust him." As he argued (10/10/02) to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D.-Texas), "We do have the moral authority to remove him because he violated the Gulf War treaty. Surely you understand that…. We can go in and morally remove him…. Read the treaty, congresswoman.... If he violates his terms, we can then resume hostilities."

He was dead. He was dead wrong.

The Gulf War ended with a permanent cease-fire when Iraq formally accepted U.N. Security Council Resolution 686 in March 1991. 

On Tuesday 3-24-09 during the Rove segment O'Reilly called Obama a socialist with socialist policies. When just two weeks ago he read an e-mail that said Obama is a socialist, then Billy said no he's not, and told the e-mailer that Obama is NOT a socialist. Then the next night he says Obama is a socialist, Beckel even called him on it later in the show. I think Billy tells so many lies he cant keep em all straight, which is it O'Reilly, is he a socialist or not, take a position and stick with it. You cant have it both ways.

Sexual Harassment
O’Reilly has shown interest in the traditional dick hobby of sexually harassing female subordinates. According to a complaint leveled by Andrea Mackris, a former producer, O’Reilly subjected her to a series of his carnal fantasies, including one involving Mackris’ “spectacular boobs” and the sexual use of a loofah, which O’Reilly later, inexplicably referred to as “falafel.” While O’Reilly is apparently in favor of using falafel as a sexual stimulant, he is much less in favor of the food’s area of origin, having referred to the Iraqi people as a “prehistoric group.” In the same broadcast, O’Reilly further cemented his reputation for fostering productive relationships, noting that, when it comes to U.S. intervention in the Muslim world, “What we can do is bomb the living daylights out of them….no more group troops, no more hearts and minds. Ain’t going to work.”

Ratings Claims
Bill often out right lies about his actual ratings. He often claims that he is the most watched news show in America. In fact Brian Willams routinely kicks his ass.