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The O'Reilly Factor

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The O'Reilly Factor
O'Reilly Factor promotional image from FoxNews.com
Created byBill O'Reilly
StarringBill O'Reilly
(1996–present)
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes2690 as of January 26, 2007
Production
Running time60 minutes
Original release
NetworkFox News Channel
ReleaseOctober 7, 1996 –
Present

The O'Reilly Factor is an American talk show on the Fox News Channel hosted by commentator Bill O'Reilly, who discusses current political and social issues with guests from opposing ends 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 O'Reilly's first guest was General Barry McCaffrey, then the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (or "Drug Czar").

O'Reilly avoids describing himself as liberal or conservative, instead identifying as an independent and a traditionalist. He was one of the subjects of the 2004 documentary, "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism".

Format

File:Oreillyfoxbroadcastingojsimpson.JPG
An example of The O'Reilly Factor's Talking Points Memo

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 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, although some guests are interviewed before the "live to tape" period and are slotted in the program as appropriate. (Some guests have suggested that interviews are edited after taping, although O'Reilly's producers insist that editing happens only when an interview exceeds the available length in a program of which the total is 43 minutes for an hour-long slot, once commercials and news breaks are added.[1][2]

O'Reilly and his producers discuss potential topics twice a week.[3] 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.[4] 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.

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 usually appear when there is a substitute host, although John Gibson has done it on occasion.
  • 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 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. He frequently puts together letters that have opposite viewpoints on a particular segment. For instance, one letter will say O'Reilly was way too lenient toward a guest while the next will say he was way too hard on him or her.

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: Geraldo Rivera, of the Fox News-produced and syndicated Geraldo At Large, discusses a topic of interest to O'Reilly. Often, Geraldo comes on Thursdays, because O'Reilly frequently takes Fridays off. Sometimes its own segment; other times rolled into one of the above segments
  • 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. Sometimes a previous show is rebroadcast but this has become more rare to the point of not happening anymore. A notable interview will usually reair filling up one or more segments in a show with a guest host.

O'Reilly has had two call-in segments to his show: one immediately following and in response to Connie Chung's interview with Gary Condit on August 23rd 2001 and the other on September 29th, 2001 with Gary Bauer as his guest, pertaining to terrorism.

Audience

58 percent of O'Reilly's audience is over 50 years of age. 68% of regular viewers are conservative and 10% are liberal. [5]

Regular guests

Frequent topics

  • National Security vs. the Infringement of Constitutional Civil Liberties
  • Iraq War
  • Jessica's Law - O'Reilly is pushing for legislation in all 50 states to pass the law, which proposes stricter measures for dealing with sex offenders. He has states shaded based on which ones are supporting it and those that resist it.
  • Traditionalists vs. "Secular-progressives" - O'Reilly discusses a "culture war" between these two lines of thinking.
  • Illegal Immigration

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of Bill O'Reilly

The O'Reilly Factor has frequently been criticized by liberal groups as biased. Media Matters for America published a study, that alleges, by methodically counting the affiliations of guests brought onto the Factor for the first three months of 2006, found that more than 66% of political guests were conservative or Republican, and less than a third were liberal or Democrat.[6] Neither O'Reilly nor the Factor have responded to the study by the organization.

O'Reilly has been known to cut off the microphone of guests who he believes are spinning too much. Media Matters for America has said that O'Reilly has done this at least 11 times.[7]

Peter Hart, a media analyst for the progressive Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, said that "the O’Reilly factor is probably the perfect example of everything that’s wrong with Fox News Channel. They have stories that are selected primarily to upset liberals and Democrats and prop up the Republican Party. You have a hostility towards guests that disagree with the host and you have a host who in service of his conservative politics will distort facts, will misrepresent things, and will in some cases, just fabricate." [8]

Parodies

File:Colbert word.jpg
Stephen Colbert spoofs Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" segment.

On October 17, 2005, The Colbert Report premiered on Comedy Central. The show, hosted by Stephen Colbert, is a satirical spoof of The O'Reilly Factor, spoofing 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 approved of 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. Colbert calls the character based on Bill O'Reilly "a well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot".[9] On January 18, 2007, Stephen Colbert appeared on the O'Reilly Factor[10] and Bill O'Reilly appeared on the Colbert Report.[11]

The O'Reilly Factor has also been spoofed on Saturday Night Live, first by Jeff Richards and later on by Darrell Hammond. On Mad TV it was Michael McDonald doing the honors. O'Reilly himself has appeared on Mad TV as a judge on an American Idol parody [citation needed].

In addition, The O'Reilly Factor has been parodied on South Park in the episode Goobacks.

On The Political Machine, a show that you can appear on while running for president is called "The O'Malley Factor".

People who decline to appear on 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. Some that have been invited but have not gone on include Barack Obama[citation needed], Hillary Clinton, Jane Fonda, Ron Paul, Snoop Dogg, Bill Moyers ,[12] Nicholas Kristof,[13] Two people who refuse to go on The Factor ever again are Michael Moore, citing that O'Reilly was "too mean" to him on his last visit to the show and Dick Cheney who didn't like the questions he was asked during his past experiences on the show[citation needed].

It is said that actor Alan Alda is "welcome anytime" to the show, but declines to appear because "he is not a fan" (quotes from Bill O'Reilly responding to a letter from a viewer who asked if Alan Alda would be appearing)[citation needed].

People not allowed on The Factor

  • David Brock: President of Media Matters for America has written a letter asking to be a guest on The Factor after O'Reilly repeatedly criticized him on the show.[14]O'Reilly has not responded.[15] Media Matters for America also quoted O'Reilly as saying: "I have no respect for that organization. They will never set foot, not only in my program, but at Fox News Channel, because they are dishonest, inherently dishonest. They take stuff out of context, they use smear tactics. They're paid assassins by George Soros."[16]
  • Al Franken: Despite almost constant criticism and refusing to use his real name (referring to him as Stuart Smalley, a character Franken created and played on Saturday Night Live) O'Reilly has not had Franken on since the publication of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, a book highly critical of O'Reilly and his colleagues at the Fox News Channel.[17][18]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Greenroom Confessions - boise weekly". 2005. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  2. ^ "Bill O'Reilly.com behind the scenes Q/A". Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  3. ^ "Bostonia - BU alumni quarterly". 2001. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  4. ^ "Accuracy in media report". 2003. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  5. ^ "Pew Research Center Report - Maturing Internet News Audience Broader Than Deep". 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  6. ^ "mediamatters.com - Progressives Factored out". 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  7. ^ "mediamatters.com - O'Reilly interview tactic - cutting the guests mike". 2005. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  8. ^ "outfoxed - transcript pgs 49-50" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  9. ^ Solomon, Deborah (2005-09-25). "Funny About the News". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 2006-10-23. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Stephen Colbert Enters the No Spin Zone. Foxnews.com Published 2007-01-18. Last Retrieved 2007-01-19.
  11. ^ Bill O'Reilly Pt. 1. ComedyCentral.com January 18, 2007. Last Retrieved 2007-01-19.
  12. ^ "ABC news - Bill O'Reilly calls himself T-warrior -". Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  13. ^ "Sympathy for Bill O'Reilly". 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  14. ^ "mediamatters.com - letter from David Brock to Bill O'Reilly". 2004. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  15. ^ "mediamatters.com - Take Action Page". 2004. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  16. ^ "mediamatters.com - Bill O'Reilly calls mediamatters paid assasins for George Soros". 2005. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  17. ^ "mediamatters.com - Bill O'Reilly's enemy list avail on hardcover $26". 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
  18. ^ "mediamatters.com - Bill O'Reilly compares hollywood to Nazi Faithful". 2004. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
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