Bill O’Reilly
Bill O'Reilly is a prominent American television host, political commentator, and author, best known for his tenure at Fox News. He launched his career at Fox in 1996 with *The O'Reilly Report*, which later became *The O'Reilly Factor*. The show gained significant popularity during the 2000 presidential election, eventually becoming the top-rated program on cable news, surpassing competitors like CNN's *Larry King Live*. O'Reilly's interviewing style, characterized as brusque and direct, resonated with a large audience, earning him millions of viewers.
Despite his success, O'Reilly's career faced a major turning point in 2017 when multiple sexual harassment lawsuits came to light, leading to his dismissal from Fox News. Aside from his television career, he is an accomplished author, having written over twenty-five nonfiction books, including the well-known "Killing" series, which explores historical events. O'Reilly is recognized as a conservative commentator, although he identifies as an independent thinker and a traditionalist. Following his departure from Fox, he continued his media presence through podcasts and radio programs, demonstrating his lasting influence in American conservative politics.
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Bill O’Reilly
- Born: September 10, 1949
- Place of Birth: New York City, NY
Bill O’Reilly joined Fox News as host of The O’Reilly Report in 1996. The program’s ratings were initially below average, but they quickly rose during the 2000 presidential election. O’Reilly’s brusque style of interviewing proved popular with audiences. He was soon the top-rated cable news host, earning higher ratings than CNN’s Larry King Live. In 1998, the name of O’Reilly’s show was changed to The O’Reilly Factor and viewership continued to grow. However, the show was canceled in 2017 after revelations that he and Fox News had settled multiple sexual harassment lawsuits filed against O'Reilly.
William James O'Reilly was born to an Irish Catholic family in New York City and grew up on Long Island. He attanded Marist College and graduated with a degree in history in 1971. A few years later he got a master's degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University. He then went to work as a television news reporter, eventually becoming a correspondent for CBS and then NBC, covering stories such as the civil war in El Salvador and the Falkland Islands War. From 1989 to 1995, he co-anchored the CBS television news magazine Inside Edition. He then got a master's in public administration from Harvard University.
O'Reilly went to work for Fox News Channel in 1996, and The O’Reilly Factor grew to become the top-rated show on any of the three main twenty-four-hour cable news channels (Fox, CNN, and MSNBC). His brash and plainspoken style earned him millions of fans. Though widely considered a conservative commentator, O'Reilly has said he considers himself an independent thinker and not beholden to any one political ideology. However, he considers himself a "traditionalist," and a critic of the effects of secular liberalism in American culture.
In light of his television success, O’Reilly launched The Radio Factor in early 2002, which had a discourse similar to his television program. The project never fared as well as The O’Reilly Factor, however. Nonetheless, O’Reilly was able to translate his television notoriety into publishing. He has published more than twenty-five nonfiction books, many dealing with his opinions on American politics, family, and culture. He released a children’s book, The O’Reilly Factor for Kids, in 2004. Several of O’Reilly’s books, including The No Spin Zone (2001), and Who’s Looking Out for You? (2003), have reached the top spot on the New York Times Best Sellers list. In the 2010s he published a number of popular historical works known as the "Killing" series, beginning with Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever (2011) and Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot (2013), about the presidential assassinations, and expanding to titles such as Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence (2017).
O’Reilly became well-known for his public disputes with various celebrities, among them actor George Clooney and politician and former comedian Al Franken. Some media analysts have criticized O’Reilly’s bombastic style and have accused him of narrow-mindedness and intolerance. Comedian Stephen Colbert’s The Colbert Report, which first aired in 2005, is a direct parody of O’Reilly’s program. The Daily Show, hosted by comedian Jon Stewart, regularly used O’Reilly’s show (and interviews with O’Reilly himself) as fodder. Despite the criticism, The O’Reilly Factor continued to receive top ratings throughout the 2000s. By the end of the decade, more than three million viewers were watching his newscast every night. This popuarity continued into the 2010s, until the New York Times published revelations in 2017 that Fox and O'Reilly had settled sexual harassment lawsuits against five women since 2002, totaling some $13 million. Facing the loss of advertisers and increasing public pressure, Fox fired O'Reilly, with the last episode of his program airing in April 2017. After his termination, the Times broke the story of a sixth woman, Fox legal analyst Lis Wiehl, who settled a lawsuit against O'Reilly in January 2017 for $32 million. Following his departure from Fox, O'Reilly launched a podcast called No Spin News. By 2020, the podcast was picked up by two conservative television outlets.
In 2019, he began hosting a fifteen-minute daily radio program called The O'Reilly Update.
O'Reilly was married to Maureen McPhilmy from 1996 to 2011. They have two children, Madeline, born in 1998, and Spencer, born in 2003.
Impact
O’Reilly’s political commentary was considered to carry major weight in the world of broadcast news. He is widely considered an influential figure in conservative politics in America.
Bibliography
Barton, Chris. "Timeline: The Rise and Fall of Bill O'Reilly." Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 2017, www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-bill-oreilly-controversy-timeline-20170420-htmlstory.html. Accessed 23 May 2024.
Fischer, Sara. "Bill O'Reilly's Show to Air on Conservative OTT Network The First." Axios, 1 June 2020, www.axios.com/2020/06/01/bill-oreilly-show-airing-ott-network-first-news. Accessed 23 May 2024.
Steel, Emily, and Michael S. Schmidt. "Bill O’Reilly Is Forced Out at Fox News." The New York Times, 19 Apr. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/business/media/bill-oreilly-fox-news-allegations.html. Accessed 23 May 2024.
Zurawik, David. "Bill O'Reilly Is Back—On Radio in 100 Cities Including Baltimore's WBAL." The Baltimore Sun, 7 May 2019, www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/columnists/zurawik/bs-fe-zontv-bill-oreilly-back-20190507-story.html. Accessed 23 May 2024.